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By Mohammad Yousef | August 2004
Password-protecting is the most common method used to ensure computer security and privacy. But thanks to password recovery software, master passwords, brute-force attacks… passwords have become anything but perfect. However, there’s good news. Optimizing your passwords to be harder to recover, can lead to better security. Here are some of my DOs and DON’Ts.
Never use a word that’s included in a dictionary. Such passwords are perhaps the most easy to recover by hackers.
Many people tend to use a name/birth date/phone number… as their password. This is a very common blunder too. In such cases, even a newbie with some of your personal info, might succeed in figuring out your password.
Never write down your passwords on a piece of paper and I don’t think this needs any explanation.
Now that you know what makes a bad password, it’s time to know how to create a good one. A good password is a complex one. It doesn’t necessarily have to be 20 letters long or very hard to remember. Your password should be a combination of letters, numbers and, if possible, characters. Try to mix lower and upper case letters also. As for the length, 6-8 characters should be enough. A password like “t3c#_JuNk33z”, for instance, is a beauty (even though it’s bit too lengthy). This is just an example to show you how a simple word can be turned into a good password; so you can think of other passwords that you find easy to remember.
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