Creating A Secure Password

Passwords are used to help keep your information safe and secure. Unless you choose an appropriate password it may be very easy for someone to gain access to your accounts, email and other private information.  Create a password that is easy to remember yet complicated enough to foil most security attacks. The most common way your password is compromised is by someone simply guessing what it is.  Knowing how someone may go about guessing a password can help you in creating one that is more secure.

Common Password Guessing Rules:

• Try "password"

  • Password is the most commonly used password.

• Try Personal Information 

  • Passwords often contain the name of a spouse, child, relative, pet or alma mater

  • Telephone numbers and social security numbers are common

  • Cities and States, especially home towns

  • Home addresses

  • Work Addresses

  • Vehicle License Plates

• Try some variation of the person's username or email account

  • Username spelled backwards

  • Email address used for password

  • A number before or after the username

• Try common and easy to type keyboard sequences

  • asdfg

  • 123456

  • qwerty

• Any word that can be found in a dictionary

  • Password guessing programs use 30,000+ word dictionary lists as their first attempt
    If someone wants into your account and you have a common password, chances are they can quickly guess your password. 

Making a Secure Password 

• Mix in numbers and punctuation

• Intermix capitals with lower case letters

• Use at least eight characters if allowed

• Change your password at least every 90 days

• Make sure you can remember it somehow! 

Make and Remember a Strong Password 

• Choose a phrase. It can be your favorite quote or reference, but don't make it the quote on the calendar at your desk.

  • "Security is a process, not a product."

• Use the first letter of each word. Using the phrase above to generate an acronym creates an easy to remember sequence of fairly random letters.

  • "siapnap"

• Substitute numbers for letters. You can do some or all, but the following are the easiest to remember:

Number	Letter
0 (zero)	O (oh)
1 (one)	L (ell)
1 (one)	I,i (eye)
3 (three)	E (`e)
4 (four)	A (`a)
8 (eight)	S (ess)

•  Capitalize all the nouns and reinsert punctuation

  • "S14P,n4P"

• Make sure at least one symbol character is used. If no punctuation was inserted in step 4, add some symbol characters to your password.

  • "S14P,n4P!"