Five Steps to a More Secure Password
How Secure is Your Password?
A secure password is one of the simplest lines of defense in keeping your computer and internet data secure. How secure are your passwords? Check you password strength against the criteria in this article.
Password Length
The more characters your password contains the harder it is the crack. Where passwords and banking pin numbers once had a minimum length of 4-6 characters, the minimum length is now increasingly 8 or even more characters.
Remember to balance out the length of your password with your ability to remember it! While a 15 character password may be a strong password you also need to be able to remember that jumble of letters and numbers. For a password to maintain its integrity, it should never be written down!
Common Passwords
Stay away from common passwords. Here's just a few that make the top 20-qwerty, 12345, 123456, princess, abc123. If you recognize any of these as passwords you use, change them. NOW!
Names of family members and birthdates, while easy to remember, are also easily hacked, especially by someone who knows you.
Use Numbers
Use numbers in your passwords to increase the strength of your password. If you use only one number in your password, don't make it the first or last character. Try adding a number into your password where a similar appearing letter may be. For example if your password is qwerty (shame on you!) substitute a '3' for the 'e' to give you qw3rty.
Substituting characters makes it more difficult to break the password with an dictionary algorithm that checks the usage of common English words.
Use Special Characters
Special characters such as &$#@!* are increasingly being required in passwords, especially on systems where security is tantamount (online banking for instance). Again, if you are required to use only one special character try not to use it as the first or last character.
Change Passwords Regularly
Even if the system doesn't require you to change your password, it is in your interests to do so regularly and keep your data secure.
If you believe any of your passwords have been compromised or you no longer trust someone who may have had access to your passwords, change them immediately, especially if the passwords you use are all variations of a theme.
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Published by Carly Wyatt
Aspiring freelance writer View profile
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