How to Provide a Strong Password

Using a good password for accessing your computer or a website is important in order to make sure your information is secure. A strong password is a good password. What is a strong password? A strong password is a password that can not be easily found out. What are some steps in creating a strong password?

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. The first consideration in creating a strong password is to make sure you are not using a word or phrase that can easily be guessed or discovered. For example, the word 'egg' is known well among users. If you are to use a word, it should be one not easily known. Using your own created word for a password can be more effective than using a commonly-known word. Additionally, do not use your name for a password. The easiest password to use is the word 'password'.

2. The second consideration is word or phrase length. The longer the password, the less likely someone will find out what it is (exception is mal ware that can extract passwords from documents or web sites). However, having a password that contains 50 characters may be unnecessary. Password length from 8 to 10 characters is workable.

3. Another consideration is to use a mix of characters. Using a password with a combination of upper and lower letters along with special characters such as !, ?, or $ makes your password a strong password. One of the easiest efforts is to use a password generator (e.g., strongpasswordgenerator.com/). Using a password generator can provide password ideas for you.

Tips & Warnings

• Do not use words that are commonly known
• Do not use your name or common names
• Do not use short passwords
• Do not write down your passwords
• Do not give anyone your password especially if asked for through e-mail or on-line
• Change your passwords frequently
• Notify a website provider if your password for a site has been compromised
• Realize that even the most secure password can be found out through the use of hacking tools that use brute force or data dictionaries to attempt to crack passwords. Most networks will only allow so many password resets limiting the likelihood that brute force attempts will be affective. However, if a user can access a system remotely, he or she may have access to password sources.

[barba0727]

on 11/30/2009 Good article on providing a strong password. 5*

[dthere]

on 11/5/2009 It is puzzling (yet possible) why people would make passwords they won't 'be able to' remember.

[rkremer]

on 11/5/2009 Make sure you don't make a password so difficult that you need to write it down to remember it! We see a lot of users at my work either doing this or asking us for password resets for the first few days after they change passwords. :-)