Secrets of Making a Strong, Secure Password

Stop hackers from stealing your data, your money, and your identity!

Computers get faster all the time. Thieves can run the entire dictionary through your password login space — putting your online banking and PayPal accounts at risk!

To foil such attempts, make sure you have a secure password! Changing your password regularly is far less protective than having a really strong password in the first place!

Here's how to make a strong password:

Choose two or three words you can easily remember.
Your goal is to have at least 12 characters. More than 12 is even better.
Misspell the words.
Sprinkle with a few digits (numbers)
Sprinkle with odd capitalization.

Example:

My favorite words
My favrite wurdz
My 4 favrit3 wurdz
My4favrit3WURDZ

If you must change your password twice a year or every month, here's a simple strategy. Make a strong password as above, then add the year and month at the end.

MyFavrit3WURDZ906
MyFavrit3WURDZ907
MyFavrit3WURDZ908

Another hack-proof strategy is to create a mnemonic phrase you can easily remember. For example, I Left My Heart In San Francisco becomes ILMHISF -- but make it longer! Here is a how to.

—August 2009, Wyn Snow