Your passwords are the one protection that you have to keep others out of your personal profiles, accounts, and other online memberships. Therefore, you’ll want to make sure that you choose a password that you can remember, but that won’t be possible to guess by someone who intends to try to break into something of yours.
It isn’t too much of a challenge to create a password that someone else won’t be able to guess.
A strong password is one that is relatively random – or at least one that would appear to be random to anyone other than yourself. To create a strong password, make sure that it includes the following elements:
• Length. It should be over seven characters long. When it comes to passwords, the longer you can make it, the safer it is typically considered to be. If you can – that is, if it is not longer than the maximum number of characters permitted by the program, software, or online account – then 14 characters long would be ideal.
• If random characters aren’t used, try to use a pass phrase instead of a pass word. This means that you can stick several words together instead of using just one word alone.
• Use your full keyboard. Use as many different kinds of characters as the software or website will allow. Use numbers and letters as a minimum, but if you can also use symbols, you should include those as well.
• Make sure that the words, phrases, numbers, and symbols are easy for you to remember, but wouldn’t be possible for anyone else to guess. Though you might be inclined to write your passwords down, you should make sure that any passwords that are written on paper should be stored safely in a place that nobody else would easily find – especially if they were snooping around trying to find a password. Contrary to popular belief, it is much safer for you to write down your passwords than it is for you to use a password manage or store your passwords somewhere online.