How to Select a Safe Password

A safe password is important for the security of your data

Millions of people use computers for the storing and sharing of data, and some computers have tens or hundreds of users over the course of a single day. You must exercise caution when securing any data you do not want others to see. A password helps protect your data from being accessed by other users. For this reason, it is important to select a password that is difficult for others to guess or otherwise obtain.

Instructions

1. Use a meaningless sequence of characters. Avoid basing your password on personal history or information. If a person knows anything about you, he or she may be able to guess your password based on that knowledge. Using any actual words in your password is a potential security risk.

2. Use a combination of letters and numbers. When your password contains both letters and numbers, this expands the set of possible characters, thereby making the password even harder to guess. If the password is case-sensitive, use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters.

3. Use special characters. If allowed, special characters such as the exclamation mark, ampersand, etc., make your password more difficult to guess. In addition to expanding the set of possible characters in your password, special characters are often less intuitive and therefore less frequently checked in attempts to guess your password.

4. Make your password as long as possible. This will make it even more difficult to guess. Be careful that you don't make it so long that you will forget it easily.

Tips & Warnings

• Use different passwords for each account that you have. If somebody finds your password to one account, at least they won't have access to all of your accounts.

• If you are using a public computer, make sure that your passwords are not saved. When you are prompted by a browser, always select the option to never remember your password.

• Write down your password in a safe place so that you will be able to recover it if you forget it.

References

• Password Help; Google
• Password Guidelines; Fermilab
• Strong Passwords; Microsoft