What is a Strong Password?

Passwords today are becoming increasingly important. They may open something as trivial as a special file to something as important as an online back account. Therefore, it is imperative that you have strong passwords to ensure security.

Strong passwords are always lengthy. Usually a length of 14-16 characters is ideal and hard to guess. Strong passwords also combine letters, numbers and symbols. Using the entire keyboard is best. Don’t stick to just the regular 26 letters of the alphabet. Feel free to add numbers as well as symbols such as $ or # to your password. Since most passwords are case sensitive, also try to use upper case letters somewhere in the middle of your passwords. The strongest kinds of passwords don’t use proper words. Brute forcing programs can check words that are in the dictionary at an incredible speed. It is much safer to create a password that is of random symbols, letters and numbers.

Weak passwords are words that are easy to guess and that use just the 26 letters or the alphabet. They are usually something personal.

Sometimes accounts can come with default passwords. It is crucial to change these default passwords to something strong.

Some examples of weak passwords are:

• admin – This password is used incredibly often. Is is very easy to guess and is a default password in many cases.
• password – This password is also used very often. It is frequently used as one of the first words hackers guess to crack passwords.
• qwertyuiop – While this password may seem strong at a glance, it is in fact, not at all. Strings of letters such as this one are simply a row of letters on the keyboard. Another weak password like this would be asdf.
• monkey – While this password may seem random enough, dictionary words such as money or pig are used too frequently.

The best passwords are not one or two words, but are phrases that are easy for you to remember and hard for anyone else to guess. They can also be completely random symbols. A password like of random characters is basically impossible to guess.

One way to create a very strong password is to follow these simple steps:

1. Think of a phrase that is easy for you to remember
   

   Example: my dog is three years old

2. Take out the spaces
   

   Example: mydogisthreeyearsold

3. Add some random capitals. To help you to remember them, try and make a word out of the capital letters. In this case, I used GREY.
   

   Example: mydoGisthReEYarsold

4. Add some random symbols
   

   Example: myd%oG&ist#hReE!Yar%sold

5. Take out the first two letters and the last two letters
   

   Example: d%oG&ist#hReE!Yar%so

To test whether your password is strong, the Microsoft website has an excellent password checker that will tell you if the password is strong or weak.

Remember to not write or save your password anywhere. Try to use variations of your password for each different service.