Strong Passwords
Reasons to Have a Strong Password
The most common way a person hacks into someone’s account is by guessing his/her password. Treat passwords as you would your physical keys you use to unlock your house. So if you have a “Strong Password”
- It’s less likely for someone else to log into your account
- It protects your personal information
Guidelines for a Strong Password
- Do not include your name or your username
- Do not use a combination of dictionary words
- Easy to guess patterns do not work either: p@ssw0rd is too easy to guess
- At least 8 characters long (the more the better)
- Make sure it’s something that you will remember (if you have to write it down its not strong)
- A mixture of both uppercase and lowercase letters
- A mixture of letters and numbers
- Including at least 1 special character “@?<>{}*&^%$#”
- Make sure the password is only used on one account
A good website to use is How Secure is My Password to see if your password is easy to hack or not
Storing Passwords
Remembering a plethora of passwords can be frustrating. A way to deal with this is to use a password manager.
- ex: Dashlane, Lastpass, 1Password, Google Password Manager For the password manager to be most efficient:
- Create a “Strong Password” for accessing the manager
- Terminate out of the manager completely when you are not using it (even if it is locked)
- Use two-factor authentication
How do I ensure my password protection stays safe?
- Never share your passwords with others
- It is okay to make your passwords unique to you personally, but make sure it is not something that is easily guessed
- Have a different unique password for each account/site
- Change your passwords often
In the end, hackers rely on the human instinct to guess passwords, so it’s up to you to be unpredictable and to protect your precious information.
Education Use For educational use, we also made a Strong Passwords Powerpoint to help better understanding the topic.