It is a no-brainer that “password” is not a good password. Anything that can be easily guessed is, obviously, a bad password. But what makes a good password? What characteristics make for what people call a “strong” password?
In general, most security experts agree that the following represents a good start towards a good password:
- Your password is at least eight characters long.
- Your password does not contain your name or the names of family members, friends, the company you work for, or any groups to which you belong.
- Your password does not contain easily identifiable number sequences, such as your address or birth date.
In addition, you can make your password even stronger by making sure it includes one or more of these characteristics:
- Your password contains a mix of lowercase and uppercase letters.
- Your password includes at least one digit and one special character (such as a period, dollar sign, underscore, or the like).
- Your password does not contain any complete words that may appear in a comprehensive dictionary.
See! Figuring out a good password isn’t all that hard. Basically, anything you can do to make your password harder for others to guess makes it stronger and, therefore, more secure.
