Access to almost any publically available online service requires a username and a password. Your username will usually be easily guessed which means the security of your accounts comes down to how good or bad your passwords are.
Choosing good passwords can be quite difficult - they need to be easy for you to remember (so you don't have to write them down on a post-it note next to your computer) but difficult for others (and in particular computers) to guess.
Before we look at how to choose a good password why not see how good your current password is. This online site (link below) will let you type in a password and show you how long it would take a computer to guess it as well as providing some good password tips.
The site is secure and won't be recording your password however if you are uneasy about using one of your actual passwords, try something similar to what you already have instead.
Modern computing power allows a desktop computer to make so many guesses a second that a complicated seven character password can be guessed within an hour and an eight character password would only take a few days to guess. What was previously considered a good password is ofter no longer the case.
Of course the reality is a little bit more complicated than that but having a good password is very important and if you are still not convinced then read on...
Choosing a good password and keeping it secret are very important.
The basic rules for a good password is to use at least three from the following and come up with something that is ideally 10 characters or longer:
Your password should be easy to for you to remember and difficult for anyone else to guess. It should also be easy to adapt when you are asked to change it.
If you are having difficult choosing a good password then try this site:
Don't be put off by the fact that the site is aimed at children - unlike many other password generators we have seen it generates passwords that are both strong and memorable.
Keep clicking for a strong password until you find one you can remember and also take note of what Dino is saying. For fun, try a few more to see what Dino has to say.
You can use applications such as "Password Managers" and password vaults to managed and store your passwords. If so thoroughly research the product before using it and always make sure you have a back up just in case.
We do appreciate that you probably have lots of different codes, passwords and PINs to remember so:
The IT Manager has decided on this policy and the reason is... "To be perfectly honest, I don’t trust you to pick a good enough password".
In the ideal world we would never need to know your password however sometimes we need to be "you" to recreate the problem.
Having you there every time we need a password can be a bit inconvenient so: Do not give your password to someone you don’t know especially over the phone.
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