You’ll often see notices stating that you should choose a strong password. What does that mean? Well, basically it means that you should pick a password that is not going to be guessed. Most people feel that they are safe if they choose a password the average person wouldn’t think of trying. Unfortunately, this is not true. You also need to choose a password that a computer will not be able to guess. There are many password-cracking programs out there. They can try thousands of passwords at a time. While, if given enough time, any password can be cracked, there are ways for you to minimize this risk.

Never use a word that can be found in a dictionary as your password. It is extremely easy for a computer to try every word in the dictionary. This goes for both English and non-English words. The same goes for first names. A cracker will often try every entry in a baby name book. You should also never use anything that is of personal relevance to you, such as any part of your name, address, pet’s name, school or business name, the type of car you drive, etc. These are all items that an intruder would try first.

Another thing to avoid is using consecutive or adjacent keys on the keyboard or using duplicate characters. This means that “qwerty” and “qqppww” are terrible passwords. You should also never use a password that is shorter than 8 characters.

Lastly, don’t repeat a previous password, and don’t just keep incrementing the numbers on the end of your password. If someone finds out your password in June is “password6” they are probably going to try “password7” when July rolls around!

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