It is important to have a strong password in order stay secure online and to avoid intrusion. Length and complexity are the key to a strong password.
Keys to having a strong password: keep it long and complex
A suitable password is one that is long and also has letters, numbers, punctuation and symbols.
- Try and always use eight or more characters.
- Avoid using the same password for everything, because cyber criminals can easily obtain it from websites with very weak security and then use it in better secured environments such as banks.
- Make sure you change your password every three to four months. You can set an automatic reminder for yourself to change your password for your email, banking and websites using debit/credit cards etc.
- Have some variety of characters in your password. However password hacking software can automatically check for letter-to-symbol conversions, such as changing "too" to "2" or "and" to "&".
- Use the your whole keyboard, not just the letters and characters that you use the most.
There are various ways to create a password to be long and complex, here are some suggestions to help you to create and remember it easily.
Other methods to ensure you have a strong password:
You can test the strength of your password by using a password checker. Here's a password checker you can use.