This is the second of a four-part series on passwords.
Part 1 – 6 Common Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing a Password
A strong password is an important part of your online security. It makes it impossible for hackers and online criminals to gain access to your accounts and transactions thus keeping you safe and secured. Although there are many ways to create a strong password, there three important factors that you must take into account if you want to create a strong password. These factors are Length, Composition and Complexity.
Password Length
A strong password must not be too short i.e. should not be made up of less than 10 characters. Although there is no official password length standard, it is preferable that your password should be no shorter than 10 characters or longer than 30 characters. Short passwords can be easily deciphered, while those that are too long tend to be easily forgotten.
Password Composition
A strong password should consist of a variety of characters. When creating a password, make use of the entire keyboard, including the Shift, Ctrl and Fn keys. Passwords should not be limited to just letters and numbers – upper case letters, alpha-numeric characters, symbols and punctuation marks are all components of a strong password.
Password Complexity
Simple passwords are not strong passwords. The more complex a password is, the more difficult it will be to decipher. Hackers tend to go for dictionary words because many computer users pick their passwords from a dictionary rather than creating words that are uncommon and cannot be found in dictionaries. If you are one of such users, it is time to change your password.
Secure Password
A simple way of creating a long, complex and secure password that is easy to remember is shown below.
- Choose a sentence from a favourite quote, book or movie. For example, I come in peace!
- Mix up the words by moving the first word to the middle and so on. in come I peace!
- Now join the words together and replace some letters with random characters from your keyboard as follows. 1ncOm3Ipe8se!
As phrases tend to be more difficult to hack than single words, you are on to a winner if you follow the above example. In addition, choosing your favourite quote makes it easier to remember. However, if you find that you still struggle to remember your passwords, you might have to create a memory device to remind you.
The next part of this series will discuss special tips on testing and protecting passwords.
Talking Point
There are many ways to create long, complex, safe and easy-to-remember passwords. Share yours with our readers.
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Kate
March 27, 2010 at 6:06 pm
I cant tell you how sad it is that we still have to have this little chat with end users. One of my friends told me she uses her kids names for passwords, at work. Talk about an admin asleep at the wheel. I will have to forward her theses tips. At least the composition one may get followed.
pharmacy tech
March 28, 2010 at 9:51 pm
nice post. thanks.
Domain name registration
April 7, 2010 at 7:21 am
Nice tip on password, thanks for sharing it…
Insurance
April 11, 2010 at 10:05 am
Ive heard of using password creator programs but never trusted them.
How to Make a Strong Passwor
May 23, 2010 at 5:20 am
nice post 🙂
Lose Belly Fat
May 27, 2010 at 11:25 pm
Thanks for this. I’m interested to leanr more about passwords, because my webserver has been hacked 2 times now! God dang it.
.-= Lose Belly Fat´s last blog ..Metabolism and Nutrition: The Inside Story of Obesity =-.
Admin
May 28, 2010 at 10:31 am
Thanks for the comment guys.
DentalTech
May 28, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Nice post, thanks
.-= DentalTech´s last blog ..Dental Technician Job Description =-.
Fat Burning Diets
September 5, 2010 at 7:48 am
you have some very creative idea’s… i usually put in stuff like $$ and %dollars stuff that moves me or i am very attached to.
Lose stomach fat
September 11, 2010 at 4:09 pm
Thanks! This will really help. It happen to me that my wordpress admin page gets hacked because I used dictionary words for it, also my personal facebook profile was hacked because of that.
Pharmacy Technician
September 15, 2010 at 1:50 pm
hey this is nice tutorial to create strong passwords..Thanks for the info
Ultrasound Technician
September 25, 2010 at 10:46 am
Ya everyday we heard , or see facebook account are hacked, sites are hacked, one of the reason is weak pass , which hackers crack easily .
So your post will be useful for many of us , Thanks for the nice info,
Regards
Dental Tech
October 26, 2010 at 5:02 am
It is important we choose strong pass , i think you have share very very useful post .
Thanks mate .
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December 19, 2010 at 5:25 am
Thanks for these great tips. It really helps to know some powerful methods to protect our sensible information and accounts.
Radiology Tech Salary
December 30, 2010 at 5:10 pm
Thanks for this very useful information..this really help a lot..
Ultrasound Technician Salary
December 30, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Thanks for sharing this post its very useful..thanks a lot..
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January 8, 2011 at 5:52 pm
Great info on protecting sensitive information. I have friends who have been hacked and its not so pretty.
x ray technician salary
January 8, 2011 at 5:53 pm
Longer passwords are better.. however it can start to become annoying typing in so many characters to log into different accounts when you have more than just a couple of accounts to worry about logging into.
Jane
May 3, 2011 at 1:54 am
I tend not to use overly complicated passwords, just my good old standby with letters and numbers. How else do you keep track of them? I don’t really like using password programs.
kelvin
July 14, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Having a long password is good. Combine with lower case and upper case letters are good also. Tossing in a few alt characters and symbols will make it really hard to guess/figure out.
Ellen
July 16, 2011 at 9:33 pm
I tend to use complicated passwords, but I save them in my password manager is that a smart idea? Or are password managers easy to hack? I could write the passwords down on a piece of paper, but using a password manager speeds up the process.
Raja
July 24, 2011 at 5:16 am
ya…i agree with you..the password must be secret and that must be mixed of upper case and lower case..
Marc Rasmussen
August 8, 2011 at 2:58 pm
There are password generators out there however most of them are not reliable. However i do agree with you. Come up with a password that is mix with upper and lower case plus numbers and different symbols. This is the technique i used in creating my password in Paypal. Cheers!