Passwords sometimes have the reputation of being a rinky-dink security measure. But the reality proves that nothing can be more wrong, and they still perform adequately to restrict access to your data.
After having read our article listing the Top 10 mistakes to avoid when choosing a password, we can now tell you what good practices you should always follow when choosing your password manually, or even customizing an randomly generated password. Be sure to apply them, and we promise that your safety will increase as the chance to see your personal information stolen decrease!
TL;DR : If we would have only one tip, this is the following : just pick an obscure and complex enough password, and change it frequently.
Obviously, as manually choosing a password can be daunting, that does not mean you should struggle with this lack of creativity by yourself! So if you do not want to boil your brain doing such a choice for every character, our online password generator is here to do it for you! Finally, when you need to ensure that you have selected a strong password, always confront it with these guidelines:
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Use a variety of characters
Mixed-case passwords are better and stronger because they contain lower and UPPER case characters (e.g. pe4dG0Ol, or 3E5dh8J9). The SHIFT ⇧ or Caps Lock key is now your best friend!
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Include special characters and punctuation marks
Because these special characters require more bits to be encoded by the system, they "worth" more, and their weight into your final password is more important. For example, the Ø or ‰ characters have a higher weight than F or j. (e.g. D4÷Sz-*LÛ3Ç is safer than D4/Sz-LU3C).
It is therefore highly recommended that you use several of the following characters as part of you password, to ensure it will be complex enough: !#$.&=+-/\_@?()[]{}
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Choose a password that you can type quickly
Passwords are not only stolen online, but can just be obtained "at the source" by someone close to you, behind you, looking over your shoulder, or using a wisely placed mini-camera. So to keep safe from prying eyes, you have to be able to type your password promptly. You can exercise yourself and repeat it until your "digital memory" records how to type it smoothly.
The faster you type your password, the hardest it is to guess. But be careful of not choosing a password that you can type TOO quickly: a sequence of digits or a swipe over your keyboard producing a pattern of letters is to avoid (eg. Qwerty or 12345). This type of password would obviously be too simple, making it totally void.
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Change your password regularly (every 2 to 3 months)
Even the best password remains hard-to-crack for only a limited amount of time. Due to the increasing power and logic of computer software used by hackers to test thousands of combinations, and considering the fact that they operate by elimination, one day will come when they would finally find your password. Such tools are nowadays very easy to obtain for free all over the internet, so absolutely everyone can turn into a hacker, even temporarily.
This method is known under the kind and charming name of "Brute-force" attack: We recommend you to regularly update your password to a new one. You can pick it manually, or use our generator to do that. You can learn a lot more about the "Brute-force" method and other tactics used by hackers to crack your password.
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Do not use less than 12 characters
The shortest it is, the easiest it is to crack. Indeed, any single character added to a password increases its security exponentially. That is why we recommend that you ideally use at least 12 characters in your password, the ideal being between 14 to 18 characters. Hackers can nowadays test billions of combinations per second! For more information, please read our article dealing about how much time is required by a hacker to crack your password: that will for sure be instructive !
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Use a different password everywhere
The good habit of using a different password on each app, website, account or service will ensure you that if one of your passwords is guessed or cracked, the breach will be limited to only one service, one website, or one single account. This way, your other accounts won't be put at risk.
Contrarily, if you repeat the same password everywhere, it will be sufficient that the hacker guess it a single time. Knowing your password will enable him a paved way to all of the services you are using: Major damage assured!
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Do not use any personal information
You should avoid using your birth date, your full name, those of your spouse, friends or family members, your favorite dish, your telephone number, the pretty name of your pet (dog, fish, tiger or elephant ^!^), your license driver number, plate number, and so on.
In the highly connected world we're living in, with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Viber or Skype, such kind of information is very easily accessible by a hacker... or even by your nephew or a jealous colleague! You would be (sadly) astonished to learn how many attacks are perpetrated by the neighborhood…
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Stay away from words found in the dictionary
Whatever the language it is (your mother tongue or a foreign language), almost EVERY word available in a dictionary will be tested as your password, or as a part of it. Acronyms, reversed words, well-known brands or dishes are systematically tested by hackers.. One good idea is to substantially change the spelling of words into you password. As an example, you can replace the word house by h0u_se. Doing so for every part of your password will lead this dumb string myHouse123 ... to become very hard to crack with My=h0u_seOne!2!Free !
Be sure to read more about why we strongly discourage the use of common dictionary words.
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Do not use your login as password
If your account is "Robin190", why not use the same string as your password? After all, this would be simpler to remember only one string instead of two. Before giving you the very reason why you should NOT, just remember to NEVER DO THAT!
So, why not ? Well, because hackers use automated software that test billions of combination every second. And they know that most of people are lazy and tempted to keep thing far TOO simple: so even if you choose to use as password your login and capitalize, reverse, double, or slightly modify it, it will always look too similar to your original login, and hacker will try these combinations and variants in firstly. For example, if your login access code is Robin190, you should definitively avoid using 190NIBOr as your password.
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Never share your password with anyone
That is how it works. Your life and your security have to be under YOUR control. Why would you allow your password to be out of your control? By the way, you should never leave your computer and walk away without locking your screen with a password or logging-off. This is also applicable for your tablet and mobile phone.
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Be imaginative!
If you're not, our online generator is!
In addition to these tips, we strongly recommend that you consult our list of errors to avoid if you have not read it yet: you will find many details that will help you in making the right choice (or to not commit the worst ones!).
How long would it take for computers to crack my password?
Hacker's computers are running 24/7 trying to crack your password: how long will it take before you are in a breach?
How are passwords hacked and stolen?
Every time a password is stolen, it is not by chance: it is always the result of either a long and automated computer-driven work, or a methodical and insidious human action. Knowing where the threat comes from will help you improve your daily practices
