Create Secure Passwords
Find out how...
The stronger your password, the more difficult it will be for a hacker or other criminal to figure out. Below you will find some tips for ensuring that you have a strong password.
When creating a password, try to be creative. The more obscure the password, the more difficult it will be to hack. Never use passwords that include birthdays, phone numbers, or anything pertaining to your life. The most common passwords are pet's names, addresses, and parts of your Social Security number. They can be guessed.
Follow the practice of using a unique password with every account you have. Below is a set of steps that you can use to help you create passwords for your accounts:
- The Strong test: Is the password as strong (meaning length and content) as the rules allow?
- The Unique test: Is the password unique and unrelated to any of your other passwords?
- The Practical test: Can you remember it without having to write it down?
- The Recent test: Have you changed it recently?
In spite of the SUPR tests, you need to be aware that sniffing happens, and even the best of passwords can be captured and used by an intruder.
You should use passwords not only on your home computer but also for services you use elsewhere on the Internet. All should have the strongest passwords you can use and remember, and each password should be unique and unrelated to all other passwords. A strong password is a password that is longer than it is short, that uses combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation, and that is usually not a word found in a dictionary. Also remember that no matter how strong a password is, it can still be captured if an intruder can see it "in the clear" somewhere on the Internet.
