by Brooke Penny
A password needs to be easily remembered but hard to guess – seems contradictory, right? The trick with making a good password is to have it so specific to you, that no one will be able to guess. But at the same time, you don’t want something so unique that you need to write it down and reference it every time you need to type it.
Rule number one: Don't reuse a password anywhere and don't even think about writing it down.
Changing passwords is often a job that most people try to avoid and when it's forced upon them, is likely to make them huff and puff at their screen. Character limits and “must have's” make it increasingly difficult to think of a password and have it accepted by the system.
Would you believe that even in 2016, the following still appear on the most commonly used password lists:
“password”
“123456789”
“QWERTY”
Easy to remember? Absolutely. Easy to guess? Yes. Passwords secure our profiles in everything from computer/server logins, to social media accounts, personal and work emails, user accounts for various websites and internet banking. All of which hold sensitive information.
Rule number two: Don't use an easily guessable password and don't even think about using any of the suggestions above, as hackers would almost certainly (and almost instantly) guess any of them.
Rule number three: Use a password safe and allow it to generate your secure passwords.
As we often need a huge number of passwords, it is a great idea to use a password safe. A password safe is a secure password storage system that keeps all the passwords securely encrypted. Using a single safe combination you are able to unlock them all.
Another great upside to using a password safe is that typically they have the ability to generate random passwords.
Often we think our passwords are strong, but in fact they may be less secure than we think. Don't be complacent when it comes to security and passwords.
It is imperative that our passwords are strong and varied.