Tips For Creating Better Passwords

More and more websites are requiring more complex passwords to create an account. Your cat's name is no longer a good option (it wasn't a good one in the first place) for a password to create an account. Google requires a password that is at least 8 characters long with at least 1 number and 1 upper case letter. For example "newyorkjets15" is not a good password, but "NewYorkJets15" is a good password.

The reason websites are requesting more complex passwords is that it is much harder to use "brute force" to get into an account. "Brute force" is simply a term of using a program to try every possible password containing a certain amount of characters. The simpler the password, the less time it takes for the program or "bot" to figure it out. If you add a capital letter to an existing password it effectively doubles the difficulty at guessing the password.

So how can you create a more complex password and still remember what it is? Well, one trick I use is to mover the position of one of your hands to the left or right by one letter. So "Pickles123" becomes "Oucjkes123". I moved my right hand over one letter to the left, so P becomes O, I becomes U, K becomes J, and L becomes K. This allows your mind to remember your old password of "Pickles123" but makes it unique and complex. Another trick is to use what is called a passphrase. A passphrase is just what it sounds like, a phrase you will remember like without any spaces. For example, "Ilovemywife09" is a simple to remember password but it is long enough to be complex. The "09" being the year you were married adding a little more complexity to the passphrase. Make the numbers something you can remember but try not to use things that can easily be researched online or in a library, such as a birthdate or part of your SSN.

There is more and more identity theft occurring and you should take your online presence very seriously. My friends just recently had their identities stolen on their tax returns and up until this past week they still hadn't filed their taxes. Protecting yourself can be simple and I hope that this post has helped you realize that creating passwords are easy.