The media is always reporting about how terrible hackers are, but the truth is that most people are inviting hackers into their computers and devices because they don’t create strong passwords. A strong password will make it much harder for anyone to break into your computer or online services, but many people don’t know how to effectively strengthen their passwords. Here are a few tips to ensure that you have something that can effectively protect you.
Use Everything: A good password uses everything. This means that you should include numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters and special characters. While some services don’t allow you to use special characters, you can always use a combination of letters and numbers. A password like “5TGqo()3” will always be better than something like “password” or “enzo333.”
Longer Passwords: Most online services ask you to make your password at least six to eight characters long, but longer is always better if you want something strong. A longer password is harder to crack because it forces the hacker to work much harder to crack your password. Even brute strength password finders have a hard time with longer passwords.
Aim for at least 10 to 15 characters for the best password. Just make sure that you can remember it.
No Common Information: Never use common information, regular words or things that hackers can easily find or try if you want a strong password. For example, creating a password that uses your last name with a combination of numbers and special characters might seem safe. The problem is that a hacker can easily find your Twitter account, which will show him or her your real name.
It’s better to have a password that is entirely incomprehensible. If it’s hard to pronounce, then it’ll be hard to guess. If the password has something that the hacker can easily discover, then you’re just making things easier for him or her.
Different Uses: Never use the same password for different services. If someone figures out your password, then he or she might use it to access your email, blog, bank account and everything else. Making a different password for everything can avert this. You’ll be minimizing the damage without doing anything complicated.
Frequent Password Changes: Some people equate passwords to underwear because you should change them often. Changing your password every few weeks or months will make it much harder for a hacker to discover it. Not only that, but it will stop anyone who has figured out your password from accessing the online service.
Just be sure to follow the other tips above when changing the password. There’s no sense in thinking of a new password if you’ll just make it weak and simple. Not only that, but you should definitely change your password if your account was recently hacked. If your eBay password was stolen, then change it immediately. Don’t keep using the same password.
Another practical reason for doing this is that many hackers use brute force programs. These will keep guessing your password until the right combination is found. Changing your password ensures that the program won’t be able to guess it.
Conclusion
Making a strong password is essential in today’s world because everything is digital and hackers can assume your identity or make life miserable. You can guard yourself by just creating a strong password to avoid most hacking attempts.