Mark James, ESET IT Security Specialist, gives some top tips on how to create a strong password.
Passwords have and will be the bane of everyone’s digital life for many a year to come.
Almost everything we do online requires a login, and every login requires some kind of authentication to verify we are who we say we are.
Ideally, creating, storing and remembering passwords is best dealt with by a trusted password manager.
Many programs are available, free or paid, that will help you manage and create good, complex, unique passwords every time.
If you do not want to use one and prefer to think up all your passwords manually, then make sure you have a few rules in place to help you.
The first and biggest rule is never ever use the same password twice, regardless of how complex it is.
If it gets compromised from one place then whoever has it will try it on other sites to see if it works.
Secondly, make sure your password is at least eight characters long.
Also, NEVER use dictionary words, and try if possible to use a phrase you have made up yourself from something memorable.
Try where possible to use special characters and spaces if you’re permitted, change each one for the website you are creating it for but make sure you can remember them.
An example could be either using the first letter of each of your words in your memorable phrase along with adding special characters and numbers along with a website identifier so – “I Lived in Norfolk for 10 years with my dog called Spot” could be – “iliNf10ywmDc.”
Adding an identifier for your Twitter login of TR and some special characters - “iliNf10ywmDc.TR%)”
Please do not use the exact example above, but you can see how easy it could be for you to remember but others would have no idea, each login is different and easily remembered.
Do you have any tips about password creation to share with us? Let us know on Twitter @ESETUK.
Join the ESET UK LinkedIn Group and stay up to date with the blog. If you are interested in seeing where ESET has been featured in the news then check out our ‘In the news’ section.