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Step 1
Many things are done online everyday, and you need your personal information protected. One basic way to start off is to choose a great password no one else can guess. From banking online to shopping to accessing your pet's or your own medical information and records,
start with the basics of choosing a secure password no one else will be able to discover.
The Don'ts: A Few Simple Pitfalls to Avoid
Do not use anything easy to guess. It seems logical that you wouldn't repeat your username or use easily obtained personal information such as your date of birth or your middle name, but many people choose simple passwords they will remember because it's easy for them and they think it's difficult to choose a good password, but it's really not. Choosing something easy for you to remember also means it will be easy for another person to guess or remember, and this doesn't offer much security. No login names, even written in a different order such as backwards, no spouse or relatives names, including pets and children, etc. should be used as all or part of your password.
Don't choose a word that's easy to guess such as your favorite television show. As a matter of fact, it's best not to choose something that is a real word at all, since they are easy to crack. If someone really wants to obtain your password all they really have to do is run dictionaries from multiple languages across your account to find out your personal password.
Don't write your password down. If you absolutely MUST write the password somewhere, it's suggested you write only part of it down, or a hint that will help you remember the password. This password should only be kept in places where access is limited and you would notice if it was missing or was perhaps accessed by another person, such as in your wallet or a locked drawer. -
Step 2
he Do's: Use These Tips to Create a Secure Password
Do combine letters, numbers, and symbols if possible. Some sites don't allow foreign symbols such as # or &, but if they do allow them, it's best to try to incorporate them into your password. If the extra symbols are NOT allowed, at the very least mix letters and numbers.
Use a password you'll be able to type quickly, even without looking at the keyboard if possible. This will be helpful for several reasons. If someone is spying on you, and it takes you longer to look at the keyboard and locate each character of your password, they have time to look at
what you're typing as well. Also, not needing to look at the keyboard allows you to scan the people around you to make sure no one is peeking over your shoulder or trying to spy on what you're entering. This might seem like an unlikely situation, but consider how many people don't have online access at home, and use, for example, online banking at work, at a library, or at an internet cafe.
It's best to have different passwords at each site. If you have 3 email addresses, online banking, and a shopping account somewhere, and someone steals one username and password, and all your paswords are the same, they now have your password for ALL those accounts! Of course, having different passwords can be very tedious and confusing, but if you can do it, it's definitely recommended to at least use some variation of the password rather than the identical one.
The recommended length of a password is 6 at the very minimum, with 8 or more being more highly recommended. This means you should use at least 8 characters consisting of both letters and numbers, and even incorporate one or two other symbols in there if the site permits you to use such characters. -
Step 3
Putting It All Together
Some suggest writing a few sentences unique to yourself, such as
* I love chunky peanut butter.
* My dog has a high-pitched bark.
* I wish I could lose 15 pounds.
Take the first letter of each sentence which would create your password, and adding an additional number or foreign charater within it, like so:
* Ilcpb3
* Mdhah-pb
* IwIcl15p
None of those passwords look like anything someone would simply be able to guess. In fact, they don't even look like real words, and that's because they aren't! So, to make things simpler for you and more difficult for everyone else, you can choose a password for your email based on a sentence you can remember, such as Timp4mwe (based on the sentence: This is my password for my work email, where 4 in the password was representing the actual word for); choose a sentence for your online banking such as Iwtw8m$ (based on the sentence: I want to win 8 million dollars); and so forth. Creating small sentences you can remember for each different account is a good idea if this is something that works for you, and it creates diverse passwords that would be difficult for someone to break! Also throwing in some of the letters as capitals, and not just the first letter, will make your password more difficult to crack and thus more secure.
Other similar methods exist to help you create a new password, such as linking two unrelated words together or part thereof (blue and sunshine) with a number or symbol, and using some letters in the capital and others lowercase, resulting in the password: bluE8sUnshine2, or (cellphones
and bananas) with the resulting password being cel+bAna17, or a variation such as that.
It's also recommended that you change your passwords at least every 6 months, especially if the information your password is guarding is sensitive.
With all the identity theft and cyber crimes committed these days, you can't be too careful with respect to your own privacy. You must take at least the first step by choosing a secure password that will guard your accounts. It's not too difficult to originate different passwords for different accounts if you choose methods that will help you remember, such as a few outlined briefly here.
Comments
frischy said
on 11/21/2009 Thanks for the great suggestions. I have often wondered how I could create better passwords. You have given me some great ideas!
jackfrost87 said
on 4/16/2009 Great ideas for picking tough to guess passwords. Thanks for the tips.