A lot of people think that it is what you put in a password that will keep you safe.
While that is true to an extent, it is also how the password is formed that will keep you safe as well.
When you create a password you are trying to give the person who is trying to guess your password a hard to hit target.
The target becomes harder to hit depending on how long the password is and the way you place your lettering.
In the following article I will give examples of how you can do this effectively.
Creating A Strong And Safe Password
When you think about the length of your password you may be unaware of how long the password should be.
To be honest, the longer the password the better off you are, but it all depends on the site that you are on.
If you are on a web site that you are going to use all of the time, then you want the password long but not too long.
A good example of this is the password that you use for your email address.
This is an item that you want to keep secured but you might have to access from a different computer so a good password length for something like this should be 8 to 10 characters.
The best way to remember this password is to use what they call a passphrase.
A passphrase is a sentence more than a password.
So, instead of writing down “Erj3sf”, you would write down “Imgoingtoth65store”.
A passphrase will give you the amount of characters that you need while at the same time be easy to remember.
As with length, there are other factors to think about when creating a proper password.
You also want to think about the word ordering of the password.
When you come up with the password, you want to make sure that if someone was trying to attack it, then the password combination that you use would be the last thing that they think about.
Most people, if they even use a number in their password, will use this type of order “hello123″.
They put the word first and the numbering second.
This is a decent password order but sometimes you should get more creative.
The more important the item that you want to protect, the more creative you should get. Instead of “hello123″ it should be something like “h12ell3o”.
You might even want to throw in certain other characters as well – characters such as “#” or “@”.
No matter what, the more exotic the combination, the better it will be for keeping people out of your account.
Use Keepass As A Password Manager
To be able to get real creative with your password, you should use a piece of software called keepass.
It will allow you to manage and store your passwords in a safe place.
This way you will not have to memorize them.
You will be able to make them as long as needed and just use the software when you would like to access a web site.
Password combinations are very important to think about.
The wrong one can lead to you being very exposed.
Article by Lee Munson
Lee's non-technical background allows him to write about internet security in a clear way that is understandable to both IT professionals and people just like you who need simple answers to your security questions.
Lee has written 2278 awesome articles for us at Security FAQs
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I really dislike those places that limit passwords to 6 characters or less.
Me too, especially as most sites that require passwords make a point of saying that a 6 character one is ‘weak’ in the first place.
Isnt that odd, seems they want you to make a simpe short one on purpose.
Most of mine are from 8 to 11 an on a few sites they would be longer if possible.
I think 11 is about the most thats useable, not sure if any site allows more.
I use a particular method to come up with passwords that gives me a length of 10-12 and makes them memorable, at least to me anyway.
When i read the list of common passwords people used i just shook my head – 12345 or 54321 – i mean people really need to get a grip on things if thats the best they can come up with. Seems they pick something easy an simple to remember. Maybe they dont have a pen an paper handy to make one up.
LOL @ 12345, though I have friends who have equally stupid passwords such as -
pass
password
their name
their username
their date of birth
From talking to them it seems they rate simplicity way above security.
One day they will learn and it won’t be pretty.
Yes i know a few people whose passwords could be guessed rather easily. I have given up trying to get them to make a real password.
Some people just can’t help themselves, even after you’ve explained all the security risks. Oh well, you can but try.
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