Password is one of the things one has to take care about, while speaking about the security of an account in any online profile or website. When creating an account, you don’t care much about the password as you are more inclined towards using the account and registering to it as fast as you can. But if the password is not strong enough, and is guessable, the account is under major risk of hacking.
Here are a few tips on how to have a strong password for your account –
- If possible, try to have around 14 characters, or at least 8 characters in the password.
- Diversify your choice of characters to all keys on keyboard, and not just the ones you use frequently.
- Combine everything like alphabets, numbers, symbols etc.
- Create a password that is easy to remember but hard to guess by anyone.
- Think of a small phrase that you can easily recall.
- Try to keep changing the password regularly, with related phrases so that you can easily remember them.
- Try to avoid the words that are in the dictionary, as they are the most guessed ones.
- Don’t include your personal information like name, birth date etc. in the password.
- Don’t write down your password, or store it anywhere. If its really hard to remember, try to change it to a little easier one.
- Don’t use the same password for all your accounts.
- If you want to save your passwords, there are password encryption softwares available. Use them and encrypt, and then store your passwords in your computer.
- Never share your passwords in chats, or through emails.
- Don’t use sequential numbers or alphabets, or a line of keys in the keyboard for your password.
The below table is shared by Microsoft, on how to create a long and complex password –
| What to do | Suggestion | Example |
| Start with a sentence or two (about 10 words total). | Think of something meaningful to you. | Long and complex passwords are safest. I keep mine secret. (10 words) |
| Turn your sentences into a row of letters. | Use the first letter of each word. | lacpasikms (10 characters) |
| Add complexity. | Make only the letters in the first half of the alphabet uppercase. | lACpAsIKMs (10 characters) |
| Add length with numbers. | Put two numbers that are meaningful to you between the two sentences. | lACpAs56IKMs (12 characters) |
| Add length with punctuation. | Put a punctuation mark at the beginning. | ?lACpAs56IKMs (13 characters) |
| Add length with symbols. | Put a symbol at the end. | ?lACpAs56IKMs” (14 characters) |
Microsoft also has a password checker tool which can let you know how strong your password is, but you totally should not depend on it. It shows just how strong the password is, but saving it and protecting it is your own duty.
Also, there are many other sites that provide similar tools for checking password strength, I suggest not to use them as they can be saving your passwords. The tool by Microsoft is trustworthy and good one to check.
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