You might have multiple online accounts and you don’t want to use the same password for all. but you don’t remember different passwords for different accounts. so what to do then?
What makes a password strong (or weak)?
A strong password:
- Is at least eight characters long.
- Does not contain your user name, real name, or company name.
- Does not contain a complete word.
- Is significantly different from previous passwords.
Contains characters from each of the following four categories:
Character category
- Uppercase letters A, B, C
- Lowercase letters a, b, c
- Numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
- Symbols ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ – + = { } [ ] \ | : ; ” ‘ < > , . ? /
A password might meet all the criteria above and still be a weak password. For example, Hello2U! meets all the criteria for a strong password listed above, but is still weak because it contains a complete word. H3ll0 2 U! is a stronger alternative because it replaces some of the letters in the complete word with numbers and also includes spaces.
Avoid common password pitfalls
Cyber criminals use sophisticated tools that can rapidly decipher passwords.
Avoid creating passwords that use:
- Dictionary words in any language.
- Words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and abbreviations.
- Common letter-to-symbol conversions, such as changing “and” to “&” or “to” to “2”.
- Sequences or repeated characters. Examples: 12345678, 222222, abcdefg, or adjacent letters on your keyboard (qwerty).
- Personal information that could be guessed or easily discovered. Your name, birthday, driver’s license number, passport number, or similar information.
So here is a guide to create simple yet Powerful/ strong passwords for your account.
Tips:
- The concept is simple, we human being can easily remember the phrase for eg.’The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’. abbreviate it. so it will be like this Tqbfjotld
- Now try to make it complex by adding special characters at start and end. like !Tqbfjotld@
- Put numbers that are meaningful to you after the sentence. like !Tqbfjotld@007
- finally add the letters of the website(eg. Facebook) for which you are going to set this password. like !Tqbfjotld@007FbK
- for YouTube !Tqbfjotld@007YtB and so on..
Our base password is same but we have different password for different website. and Its STRONG enough !!
check out Tips from the security experts at Mozilla to help you choose strong, easy-to-remember passwords
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COU5T-Wafa4
To check the strength of your password Microsoft offers a online tool . This will quickly tell weather your password is strong or weak.
If you feel you must write down your password in order to remember it, make sure you don’t label it as your password, and keep it in a safe place.
Happy Security..
sandi says
I also have multiple passwords and this is problem. Sometimes I forget some of my passwords and this is a problem.
Thanks to share with us.
Alex says
Thanks Sandy, same was the case with me. but not anymore now. 🙂