password
Strong Password Tip and Tricks
Strong passwords (PWs) are a critically important component to protecting an account. Within an account, a variety of personal information resides.
In this article, several tips on creating a solid password as well as a few security tips regarding passwords will be addressed.
To begin, in 2019, a user cannot use passwords like QWERTY, 12345678 or PASSWORD anymore. Due to the fact that cyber attacks on the rise, the accounts with simple passwords would be the first ones to be hacked.
Creating a Password
Several levels of PW strength exist. Here are a few examples of PW combinations (plus an example of each) ranked from weakest to strongest.
- Letters only → “ihaveastrongpassword’
- a-z
- Letter and numbers → ‘ihaveastrongpassword10’
- a-z
- 1-10
- Capital letters, lowercase letters and numbers → iHaveaStronGpassWorD10
- A-Z
- a-z
- 1-10
- Capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers and symbols → iHaveaStronG?passWorD10$
- A-Z
- a-z
- 1-10
- !@#$%^&*()=+/?[]\;:<>
The difference in the first password to the final one is quite noticeable. Further, with the addition of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols, the chance that a hacker would be able to gain access to an account is low.
Another important component to take notice of is what should not be included in / used as a PW.
What should NOT be in your PW:
- Any information that can easily be looked up
- Your name, parent, or pet names
- Birthday
- Address (street name or city)
- Your username for the account
- Commonly used PWs like QWERTY
- A previous PW of another account
Hackers use methods like a brute force attack or dictionary attack to try and guess the PW. When there are many variants in the password and personal information is left out, this creates more work than worth for the hacker. Therefore leaving your account safe and secure.
Password Generator
To continue, if a user does not want to take the time to create a difficult password, many PW generators exist online. One example is https://strongpasswordgenerator.com/
On this site, the user can simply click ‘generate password’ and then receive a randomly generator PW that includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols.
Account Security Tips
Aside from creating a secure PW, a few other tips regarding account security can be of use.
- Never give out your password
- Store PWs safely or use a password manager
- Use different PWs across all accounts
- Implement two-factor authentication (extra layer of password protection)
- (See our article on 2FA!)
These tips are just a few steps towards a secure account and lifestyle in general.
Above all, creating difficult PWs may seem like an inconvenience for the user to remember, but in the big picture, keeping online accounts secure is worth it. If the user gets in the habit of differentiating PWs across accounts, and implementing these tips, account security is finally within reach.
By Taylor Ritchey
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