Password selection
Think of a good password that is easy to remember but hard to guess.
What makes a good password?
Length
A longer password is harder to guess - make your password as long as possible to help keep your information safe.
Complexity
Adding numbers, symbols and upper and lower case letters makes it harder for hackers or other people to guess or crack your password.
The best password will contain the following:
At least two uppercase letters
At least one lowercase letter
At least one number
At least two symbols (optional because we'll add symbols as filler)
Filler characters
Writing down your password is a common security risk, but it may be necessary (especially for rarely visited websites) - if you write down passwords, don't leave them in plain sight! (A notebook in a locked drawer can be a good palce for these.)
Memorability
Getting started and remembering that password can be difficult - a good method is to start with a phrase you'll remember (preferably one unique to you) and modify it to make it as secure as possible:
"Our wedding song was" I ". Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston".
The first letters of this sentence would be:
Owsw "IWALY" bWH
If you substitute a zero for the capital "O" and a numeral for the leading "I" you get:
0wsw "1WALY" bWH
You already have numbers, special Characters and upper and lower case letters - you can add padding (say an exclamation mark at each end) and come up with a password that's even harder to crack.
Great! Now you have a password that's easy to remember but hard to guess.
It's acceptable to make a few different passwords and reuse them for different sites and devices. Just make sure you don't reuse your most important passwords.
Note: for more security, try using a combination of 3 or more less obvious words and then substitute some numbers and symbols. The longer the password, the harder it is to guess.
Here are some bad passwords you should NEVER use:
password
secret
money
love
123456
Qwerty
Numbers that represent your birthday
Name of family, friend or pet
Anything that can be found in the dictionary
