What is a strong password?

A strong password is one that someone else is unlikely to guess.

Three steps to a strong password

There are three simple steps to follow:

Step One

Avoid bad password habits:

never use your first or last name or any information easily obtained about you - things like your email address, car registration number, the make of your car, the name of a close relative etc.
There are programs that can rapidly try all words found in dictionaries or sequences of letters like 'abcdef' or 'qwerty', or place names etc. These programs can also test for simple numeric substitution, such as pa55w0rd for password.
Never choose a password that is similar to your previous password. For example, by adding 01, 02, 03, etc to the end. e.g. password01, password02, etc.
don't write your password down.

Step Two

Make sure that your password is:

eight or more characters long.
a mixture of upper and lower case characters or digits.
easy for you to remember and easy to type without making mistakes.

Step Three

Use a simple formula that is easy to remember to create a strong password::

choose two words and join them together with one or more digits. For example:
apple2pie
nAvy9bLue
White0flag
use the first letter of each word in a nursery rhyme, memorable phrase, saying, or song title.
For example: a fool and his money are soon parted might become aFaHmasP . For good measure add or insert a number to give aFaH3masP.
little bo peep has lost her sheep becomes: lBPhlhS?
i was born on september 8th" might become: iWboS8th
take an ordinary word or phrase and change, delete, or add characters so that it becomes nonsensical. For example:
Brighton might become 3R1gH20n
computers might become c08Putr5
mister Cool might become mRk001

Even if you choose a strong password, you should still change it every few months, or if you suspect someone else may have discovered what it is.

There are dozens of good password management tools available. For instance Roman Lab Software's Any Password is a free, easy-to-use download that encrypts and stores all of your passwords and user names in a simple tree format.

Any Password can also generate random passwords with specified parameters (length, used characters, etc.). You can find any stored information using the incremental search feature.

Any Password is free for individual and not-for-profit charitable entity use.

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