How to Select a Secure Password

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Chris Cook, with Security Awareness Inc. A lot of times, security starts with a good password. I'm going to teach you how to create a good, secure password. First of all, the character sets that you use, can greatly expand the difficulty it would take, to hack or crack a password, so I recommend using upper case, lower case letters, as well as numbers and special characters, if they're allowed. The greater the combination of characters that you use, the more difficult it's going to be for somebody to hack, crack, or even guess your password. Next, never use information about yourself. Never use familiar names or dates, anything related to personal information, related to you. Don't use dictionary words. Don't use backwards dictionary words. A hacking or cracking program, can often check the entire dictionary, forwards and backwards against your password, in a matter of seconds. Now, you have these rules in place. Your head may be swimming. How am I going to create a good password, with all this information. It's easy. Use something like a vanity plate, example: switching letters and numbers, like the word late, could be the letter L and the number 8. You've often seen vanity license plates, and how they compress letters and numbers, to create whole words, or even sentences. You can also use phrase passwords. Use the first letter of the word in a phrase, and convert certain words in the phrase to numbers, as well, like, I spent too much at the fair last night, would be I, S, the number 2, the letter M, etc. Mix in some special characters into it, such as an exclamation point, or a pound sign, and you're going to have a really good password. Always set your passwords to a minimum of at least eight characters. Another great way to do it, are keyboard patterns. You can do patterns on the keyboard, but make sure that if you're going to use a keyboard pattern password, that you don't let anybody watch you do it. Another way to do it, is to use compound words, such as tuna fish. Tuna fish can become a very good password, and it's easy to remember, but misspell the word. Tuna, toona, # and fish, with maybe a capital F i s h, and a number 2 at the end, so toona Fish 2, with an exclamation point in the middle, and you've misspelled at least one of the words. A very secure and a long password, and it would be very difficult to crack or hack. Hope this helps you stay secure. I'm Chris Cook, with Security Awareness Inc."