Password Complexity – Clear as Mud

Today I was going through the process of updating my password on one of my accounts but received an error because the new password failed to meet the minimum requirements.  I knew this because I was presented with a single dialog box that the following paragraph.  If you can read and understand this then you are a better person then I.

“The password supplied does not meet the minimum complexity requirements.  Please select another password that meets all of the following criteria; has not been used in the previous 8 passwords; must not have been changed within the last 0 days; does not contain your account or full name; contains at least three of the following four character groups; English uppercase characters (A through Z); English lowercase characters (a through Z); Non-alphabetic characters (such as !, $, #, %).  Type a password which meets these requirements in both text boxes.”