The Best Password Tips and Tricks
By: Alex Ortiz
Tags: Information Security, Guides And Tutorials, Hacking, Passwords, Cybersecurity

Photo by Yura Fresh on Unsplash

In this article, we are going to talk about how to create the best password for you!

With all the digital devices and accounts that folks have in their lives today, having a strong and secure password is more important than ever. As the year comes to an end, there is no better time than to take some time from the end of year down time to update all your passwords. Many passwords become compromised over the course of the year and if anything, you should consider changing your password for the simple fact that it’s a good practice to change your password at least once a year.

The internet is a dangerous place. It’s a great tool, but if you aren’t careful, bad things can happen. I wouldn’t go as far as saying you should never use the internet, but just know that by utilizing the service the internet provides, you need to take extra precautions. Not changing your password after it’s been compromised is a great way to open yourself up to an attack. Not changing default passwords on your new devices is also another excellent way of getting into some trouble. With all of this said, let’s explore what makes a good password.

Have you ever looked up qualities of a good password on the internet? You probably found a tool that helps you validate the strength of your password. You probably discovered that a “strong” password is eight characters and should contain some combination of a capital letter, number, and a special character. This sounds like excellent advice! A few years ago, all my passwords followed this trend. Then I took a cyber security class. So, if the internet is lying to us, what makes up a good password? Let’s take a closer look

A password needs to strong. This means that the password should ideally be at least 15 characters long. While 8 character passwords are safe, they are not the strongest of passwords. Adding special characters and numbers to an eight character password just makes things harder for people to remember them.

Next, passwords need to be easy to remember. A password that is overly complex usually means that you need to write it down or save it in your web browser. If you forget your password, you’ll most likely have to reset it every time you try to access the website. If the passwords are too common, they also lose their security value.

So, now that I’ve rambled about all of that, what does a good password look like? Well, it’s simple.

We’ll start with the most important part. Passwords need to be easy to remember. That means that the password needs to be something memorable to you! This means that it’s something that’s important to you. So, the first thing to do when creating a strong password is to pick something that is special to you. This should be fairly easy to determine because your are most likely passionate about a lot of things. Pick one and let’s move on to the next phase.

Passwords that are long in character length, make for the most secure passwords. Just because a password is long, doesn’t mean it’s hard to remember. When you combine it with the first suggestion, you’ll get a long password that you can remember easily. For example, these passwords can be passphrases or sentences that you can remember.

Finally, add a number or special character to make things a little more complex, but still just as easy to remember.

After all of that here’s a good password for you!!

MyFavoriteIsSpid3rM@n!.

This password is easy to remember, very long, and has special characters, capitalization and numbers. You have officially created the best password you can have.

No more needing to write it down.

I hope you enjoyed this one. Passwords don’t have to be challenging for us, but should be super challenging for bad actors to figure out. They can be something memorable, yet completely safe for the internet.

If you haven’t already, go change your passwords!