The Art of Creating and Securing a Strong Password

Passwords are the gateway to your data and personal information on the internet.It is needed to access your bank accounts,pay for purchases made on eBay and other shopping websites;sign up to your favorite social networks and open emails on Yahoo or Gmail.It is an integral part of your every transaction on the web.

PURPOSE OF CREATING A PASSWORD
A sane person would not just let anybody have access to his email content especially if it has some personal messages in it.

Neither would a business entity (a bank for that matter) compromise their client by storing their data and vital information on a unsecure place.

Leaving a customer's important documents in a company's file folder is an invitation to cyber criminals
To safeguard information on the web and in any system,make sure only the authorised person would have access to it. Verifying that person who claims to be who he is must first undergo an authentication.The means most commonly used in this process are through passwords.

CREATING THE IDEAL PASSWORD
An ideal password is one which consists of varied and long characters.It has numbers,letters,punctuations or symbols.

Many people create feeble passwords which are easy to remember and which would also not be hard for a hacker to "crack".These criminals in cyber space uses sophisticated tools which can decode passwords in a matter of seconds.

DO's and DON'Ts IN CHOOSING A PASSWORD
1.) Avoid creating password using dictionary words or words spelled backwards.
2.) Don't use sequenced numbers or letters such as 1234567 and ABCDEFG.
3.) Never make your password the same as your username.
4.) Passwords based on trivial personal information like birthdays,age,social security numbers and telephone numbers are a no no.
5.) Use lower and upper case letters in creating a password.
6.) Longer passwords are more secure than short ones because there are more characters to guess.
7.) Use passphrases when you can.For example:" ILove2GoHiking".It has many characters and uses upper and lower case letters.

SECURING YOUR PASSWORD
After creating a strong password, one mistake you should avoid doing is to use the same password on every account you are signing in on the internet.If one of your login ID password is breached chances are all of your other accounts will be compromised.

Do not reveal your password by replying to fraudulent email messages sent by people who would request for your password.This is a form of 'phising' scam.

Using computers at internet cafes for financial transactions and other personal matters is unsafe.You do not own the computers on that place and thus you have no control over them.

Never tell anyone your password,even to those close to you and to children who could unintentionally pass them to malicious and untrustworthy individual.

Do not store your passwords on your computer or mobile phones.Those things would be the first ones criminals would look into.