In addition, require a minimum password length of six characters, as longer passwords are harder to guess. Users typically have a handful of favorite passwords that they assign in rotation. Hackers know this and will try a user's old password after several days. Enabling password uniqueness prevents this problem. Account lockout is a contentious security feature because it is a popular way for unimaginative troublemakers to deny access to legitimate users.
Automatic lockout monitors the number of consecutive login attempts.
After a specified number of unsuccessful tries, Windows NT can disable a user's account and prevent further login attempts. If you use lockout, set a short duration. After the duration expires, the account unlocks itself. If a user has only one PC, you can protect network data by restricting each user account to a specific machine. This feature uses a workstation's NetBIOS name to identify it.