As we are all aware; these days what we consider normal day-to-day activities require passwords. It is nearly impossible to perform simple tasks such as banking, using a computer or telephone, gaining access to information and so on without the need to provide a password at some stage in the process. That makes password security an important topic.
It would seem fairly obvious then that if these passwords govern access to some of the most important things in our lives that they need to be strong i.e. not something that someone else can guess or find easily. People often underestimate just how easy it is to crack a password. Hackers, identity thieves and just plain dishonest people can easily obtain programs that do the work for them and anyone using a weak password word will likely soon find they have paid a price for the convenience of it.
It would also seem that these days everyone knows someone who has had their personal information compromised due to poor password security so please consider the following.
Passwords Should:
- Be difficult to guess
- Be as long as possible
- Contain as many different alpha, numeric and special characters as possible
- Not be written down, recorded or given to anyone else
- Be changed regularly (although there is a proviso, see below*)
- Be different for each use i.e. don’t use the same password for everything
Passwords Shouldn’t:
- Consist of common or dictionary words
- Be a name belonging to a child, pet, spouse, street, town etc.
- Be a phone number, postcode, licence plate number, birth date etc.
- Consist solely of letters or numbers
- Be any of the above in reverse
Of course the trade-off is having the most complex password possible and still being able to remember what it is.
*One school of thought is that a very strong password that has been memorised doesn’t need to be changed as often simply because it is a strong password and people who are required to constantly create and memorise new passwords will usually create weaker passwords.
It may sound like common sense but creating and memorising a strong password is not easy – living with the peace of mind that it gives is.
On a Lighter Note
Apparently a recent password audit by Google found a user with the password:
“MickeyMinieHueyLouieDeweyDonaldDaffyGoofyMelbourne”
When questioned about the length of this password the user rolled her eyes and responded:
“Hello! It has to be at least 8 characters long and include at least one capital.”
We laugh – but her ID is safe.