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One of important problems with passwords is that because we have the tendency of forgetting them, we land up creating some easy password which are prone to be hacked. Its important that our password has enough security as well as its easy to remember.
Here are few simple tips for creating a good password;
- Never use your personal information as password- Most of the people have the tendency of using the personal information like date of birth, name, telephone numbers, pet name etc as passwords. Its easy for hackers to get your personal information.
- Do not use actual words- Never use actual or real words as passwords, because they are the ones prone to be hacked. In internet world there are lots of tools and softwares for hackers to get the passwords, so its always better to have a combination of words, unless the word itself is long.
- Use combination of words and characters- Using a combination of words and characters is the best way to make a good password. Combination of words can be usage of lower case and upper case alphabets, numerics and special characters like ‘_’, ‘&’, ‘.’ etc.
- Do not use same passwords for all- Most of us have the tendency of using the same passwords for all the sites for ease of remembering. This is again a wrong concept. Having different passwords gives more security as even if at all one of your password is hacked, other remain safe.
- Change your password frequently- Developing the habit of changing your passwords once in a month or two is again a good way to secure passwords. Do not use the passwords again and again, make new passwords while changing old ones.
- Use password managers- Password managers are handy tools for remembering and securing passwords. Shankar has reviewed few online password managers.
- Use passphrases- Using passphrases, you can create a password which is hard to crack, but easy to remember. Eg: “My Password is not easy to crack”, you can make a password out of this sentence- mpine2c. You can replace ‘to’ with ‘2′ and also use a combination of lower case and upper case.
Hope you enjoyed reading these tips, comments welcome.
I published a very similar article yesterday. Anyway, I don’t see the problem with using real words in passwords. Something like ComPuter_^339 seems fairly secure to me. If the real word makes up the password entirely, then you do have a problem.
@Jake,
I checked out your article, nice one.
You are right, real words are problem only if you use entirely, I suggest to use it with combination of upper case, lower case or numerics and symbols.
Online managers seem to be the best bet for those using multiple computers, as you can access it through web browser, without need for extra software.
For others, some software(like the ones Shankar reviewed) would be a better bet.
But anyway, the possibility of passwords being hacked are minimal, what with those millions of users.
Your plugin(which shows those icons of country, OS and browser) is acting up. I am in Thrissur and yet, it shows Australia. Maybe some IP issue.
Windows Live Writer: Avoid System hang/excessive resource usage…
Windows Live Writer is one of the most popular offline blogging software. This is rather unusual – with the exception of operating systems, most Microsoft products are either useless or have better competitors.
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Nice article Nirmal , and the icons you’re using now for you header menu look awesome , keep it up!
@TechZilo,
Some people are not comfortable in storing passwords on some server. There is some issue with IP I think, thats why its showing Australia for you.
@Cristian,
I had redesigned it yesterday, glad that you liked it.
Hey cool tips Nirmal. We can follow Adsense’ rule of minimum 12 digits, numbers and alphabets both.
Anyways, I think my password is very powerful, one of the best.
I do have strong passwords for important services like my mail but dont care much about other services where I simply need to register to make it work.
Useful tips you’ve given here Nirmal!
Nice article there. Every password of mine is alphanumeric hehe
Thanks for the mention 
@Rishi,
Good that your password is one of the best.
@Vijay,
You are right, I too just register with some simple ones for relatively less popular sites.
@Shankar,
Welcome.
[...] gives some Tips to Create a Good Password [...]
Nice post! Nirmal, I should change my password style but I’m still thinking that my password is secure, Anyway.
i agree on all these, but changing password in 1-2 months, that might create a problem for you only to remember. I had problems remembering passwords. Create a set of passwords, and try to shuffle and repeat them only.
I wont change my password in 1-2 months. might in six months or so.
Yes, using the upper/lower cases, special characters, and numbers is definitely required.
@Myo Kyaw Htun,
Thanks for the comment.
@Vaibhav,
Although its difficult to remember passwords if you change it in 1-2 months, I still request you change atleast the most important ones like bank account etc.
Yo Nirmal.
Offtopic, is long time i wanna ask you if “tv” is about a TV show or something ..
Ontopic, tips from you are welcome to maybe 90% of internet users. I know people never changed them email password, for example. Also I know people thinking often password changig is the only way to keep safe an account.
yet I have a (not essential) problem with one of your words. “Hacker”. Hackers would never want yuor password to harm, make prejudice and so on. Oh, maybe they are not quite saints on the way and durring the time they “perform” them “job”, yet hackers are the positive side .. if there is any side ..
hacker: [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n. 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable of appreciating hack value. 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a UNIX hacker’. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations. 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password hacker’, `network hacker’. See cracker.
Notice the “deprecated” on
?
Here is why :
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/crackers.html
Even more ontopic :
mot,slyb
Ya know what I typed ?
nirmaltv
Using for each letter the next right character on my keyboard.
So, using on real words MAY not be a issue, using this “style”
[...] be their password. The reason, they kept the password as their Girl Friend’s name
. Anyway, Nirmal has mentioned some really good points which tell you that what you should do, while setting up a [...]
I do think good password practice is important nowadays, especially when we are exposing so much of our personal information online.
Great tips!!
I generally use a combination of digits and characters
[...] Rocks 2.0 – Tips To Create A Good Password Do not use same passwords for all- Most of us have the tendency of using the same passwords for all [...]
You could also play with the pronunication of a phrase in whichever native tongue to alphabets and incorporate numbers and symbols into it to make the p/w really “meaningless”.
@Clara,
Thanks for that tip.
A few things to add
Never share your password with your friends or People online.
Dont select your password as word from dictionary.
Never write down a password keep it in your mind
@Praveen,
Thanks for the adds. Dictionary words are similar to real words I mentioned.
[...] be their password. The reason, they kept the password as their Girl Friend’s name
. Anyway, Nirmal has mentioned some really good points which tell you that what you should do, while setting up a [...]
[...] Tips to Create a Good Password. [...]
Using special characters and numbers to replace similar alphabets can make the password easier to remember and more difficult to crack. You can replace s with a $ l or i with 1, B with 8, o with 0 etc
eg password Pa$$w0rd
I posted an article on creating an easy-to-remember but strong password. That might be helpful as you will end up having things like “j3jkl341″ as your password, but you can remember without referring.
http://www.sheeptech.com/create-strong-easy-remember-password
Sorry for the shameless plug
Very nice
btw very good tips i will use some of them. Some i did not knew.
Good tips. I made all my password same. Seems I have to start using password manager so I can differentiate those.
Good tips!
Many people like Roboform for this purpose. It generates totally random characters and saves it right away. Great plugin for a browser.
You can also check-out http://www.passworddragon.com – Password Dragon is a free, easy and secure password manager that works on Windows, Mac and Linux. This is a shameless plug and I’m the author of this software.
Talking about combination of words and characters in the passwords, I created the “8 4 Rule” for creating strong passwords, as explained here: http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/06/the-ultimate-guide-for-creating-strong-passwords/
Good tips. I made all my password same. Seems I have to start using password manager so I can differentiate those.