Jim Guckin

For many of us out there creating a secure password isn’t always easy, it’s hard to memorize one of those complex passwords (i.e. @<6v’)T[~5).   I want to give you some good tips (and things to avoid) in order to make your password more secure.  The most common thing people do, and I was once guilty of that myself, is make the password for every website the same.  While this makes things easy on you, it also makes it easy for hacker to gain access to those accounts.  Last year the website Gawker had a data breach and had username and passwords stolen from them, well some of those same username and password accounts worked on other sites, hackers know this so make sure you choose unique passwords for each site using these tips:

• Using a remember-able paraphrase create a strong password for the site.
  For example (on a photo site) the passphrase you remember could be: i use my iPhone 5 and we make that secure by 1U5eMy1P0N35 (Now that password is more secure)
• Passwords should be more than 10 characters (recommend more than 15 if possible)
• Use Capitals Letters, Lower Case Letters, Numbers and Symbols

Thins to Avoid in Passwords:

• It should not be like your previous passwords
• It should not be your name (or login name)
• It should not be your friend’s, pet’s, family’s name
• It should not be a dictionary word
• is not a keyboard pattern (qwerty, or 12345678)
• It should not be less than 10 characters
• It should not be written down where people can see it
• It should not be dates, zip codes or phone numbers

While these tricks may seems trivial, the extra security your new passwords may make it a less interesting target for hackers.