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Choosing Passwords
 | Choose a password you will remember but one that is difficult to guess,
even by those who know you. |
| Choose a long password. The more
characters your password contains, the harder it is to crack. Each
character added to your password increases the total number of combinations
possible. A long but simple password can be as secure as a short and
complex one -- and often easier to remember. |
| Use a combination of letters, numbers (0-9), and standard symbols
(!@#$%^&*) to make your password more difficult for
other to guess. Also remember your password can be case-sensitive,
another option to remember when thinking of a good password. A good
technique is to pick a favorite phrase or lyric for your password. It
can be shortened by substituting characters or extracting vowels. If you
choose, you can just use the whole sentence or phrase, e.g.
"2tickets2paradise". |
| Don't use personal information that someone could easily figure out,
such as your birthday, child's name, street address or
phone number. Also, avoid obvious passwords such as "123456", "test", or
"password". |
| If you use a password generator, don't share any personal information.
There are a number of password generator programs
available online to help you create a random password. These passwords
are generally harder to crack but also more difficult to remember. |
| Mix up your password, but keep it memorable.
Try substituting letters with characters or numbers. You can also extract
vowels or consonants from words.
For example:
 | The phrase "Fredsboy" can be made into "Fr3d$boy"
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| The phrase "Two tickets to paradise" can be made
into: 2Tickets2Paradise" |
| The words "cat" and "dog" can be combined into;
cAt!DoG |
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Good passwords are:
| unique. Do not use a password you already use for
another account, such as your bank account PIN. |
| difficult to guess. Don't use common words or names.
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| at least 7-characters long. |
| made up of both lower and upper-case letters, numbers,
and symbols. |
Bad passwords include:
| a complete word from any dictionary (English or
other); |
| your login name in any form (as is, reversed,
capitalized, doubled, etc.); |
| common names, such as the names of family members,
pets, or friends; |
| based on any information easily obtained about you
(e.g., license plate numbers, telephone numbers, employer, school name,
automobile brand, street name, etc.); |
| all the same digit or letter (this significantly
decreases the search time for password cracking software); |
| any obvious sequence of characters (e.g., 123456);
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| obvious to anyone watching you enter them (such as "qwerty").
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