10 Common mistakes to avoid when choosing a password

Using always the same password everywhere

The first common mistake you could do would be reusing a previously used password. After all, it seems to be the simplest: you only have one password to remember. But if you think twice about it, this is a very bad practice, if not the most risky! In fact, a hacker having guessed your password one time for one account could then access ALL your accounts with this precious sesame. Because when a hacker finds a key, he tries it in all the locks!

Not using the "Shift" or "Caps Lock" key of your keyboard

You MUST definitely USE the SHIFT ⇧ or Caps Lock key on your computer or mobile device. Yes, that may sound annoying, but taking 2 seconds more to type your secure password (that is to say including lowercase AND uppercase characters) can really complicate the life of the hacker wishing to access your privacy…

Always remember: these two or three additional seconds you take to type your strong and secure password are ALWAYS a very good chance to defeat the hackers, and keep your digital life protected.

Using less than 12 characters

The shorter your password is, the easier it is to find. We recommend using a password of at least 12 characters, and most preferably more. Our online generator have many options to help you generate a strong and secure password, and as you noticed it, is "by default" 16 characters: this is not a coincidence.

For your information, you must know that a password with 6 characters can be hacked within 10 minutes by a computer. Contrariwise, the timeframe required for a computer to find your password can be extended to decades simply by adding additional and complex characters to it. Using uppercase letters, symbols (control and special characters) and numbers will greatly complicate the task of computer hackers.

Oh, and just to answer the question you did not ask: yes, hackers are not using one single computer to attempt gaining access to your life, but thousands at a time in order to achieve their ends faster.

Using common first names

Computer software used by hackers are programmed in such a way that they will test all obvious combinations with common first names in many countries (eg. Peter, Cathy, Seymour, Willy, Piotr, Abdel, Suzanne, Xu, Jean, Michel, Ada, Mickael, Mike)… and so on. Billions of them are listed and will be tested.

So if you thought that using mike7908 is secure enough, you are wrong, even if you add some numbers to the end. All suites of numbers are added to the passwords a computer hacker will test (Including logical and non-logical figures). Be imaginative when choosing your password. In our previous example, m!kE=7_9_Z_E_R_O_8 is safer than mike7908.

Using your own name as password

As indicated in previous point, hackers test first names. It is even worse if you use your own name as a password, even if you add some numbers to the end (e.g. Mike7529). All suites figures are tested by the robots used by the hackers, until they access your account. If you want to include your own name as part of your password, just mangle it enough. In our previous example, m!kE=7-5-2-9 is safer than Mike7529.

Using the name of your friends, your family members, or your girlfriend

Using common and wide-used words of the dictionary

Do you love cookies? Me too. Do you like the "Bentley" car brand ? Maybe you are a fan of basketball… So why wouldn't you pick a password such as cookieBuffalo9, bently92, or maybe 123basketball ? Because these passwords include very common words of the dictionary, slang words, acronyms, well-known brands, or very famous meals of all countries. Computers can test more than 1 million passwords in only 1 second, so you can be sure that they WILL find such a simple password.

Conversely, a password such as 1c0okie=Bent|Ey19! is much longer and difficult to find for a computer, but still memorizable for you. Why? Because it mixes uppercase and lowercase characters, and makes an intelligent use of the following special characters | = !. Discover why long and complex passwords are safer.

Using your login code as password

That may sound obvious, but you should never use your login code as password. If you login code is job389, you should NEVER EVER use job389 as password. You would be amazed to know how many users yet make this mistake (in fact … almost 7 % or users do that!).

Fortunately, more and more sites forbid you to do this (but not all, so be careful!). Even if you reverse it (e.g. 983boj), capitalize it or double it, you can be sure that you're not protected at all. Be sure to learn more about why you should not use your login or any derived string of characters.

Using obvious keyboard patterns and sequence of digits

Choosing a good password seems a painful and redundant task, so you might be tempted to just make a swipe over your keyboard, and produce a common suite of letters (eg. 12345, 0987654, QWERTY, GHJKLM). Using only digits (77777), or the same letter (ddddd) is definitely the worst choice you can make. We can assure you that "choosing" your password that way expose you to BE hacked : do NOT do that. Never.

Never changing your passwords

Once you have found an enough secure password, you are safe. At least for a while, but not for your whole life. Why? Just because hackers are constantly seeking access to all sorts of services (email, Facebook, bank accounts …).

Hackers computers work this way : Each time a password is tested without success, the computer remembers it. Thus, the next time, the algorithm will try another password in. This technique is well known and is called "Brute Force". By dint of trying always-different passwords, one day will come when the hacker computer will find your password.

So we recommend that you regularly change your password and generate a new one. Every 2-4 months seems a reasonable time period.

Sharing your password

The bonus of this TOP 10 is an eleventh one: do not share your password with anyone, for any reason!