Good and Bad Passwords

Because the attacks are becoming increasingly more common, you don't want to use anything in your password that's personal and easy to guess. Keep in mind the following don'ts:

• Don't use only letters or only numbers
• Don't use names of spouses, children, girlfriends/boyfriends or pets
• Don't use phone numbers, Social Security numbers or birthdates
• Don't use the same word as your log-in, or any variation of it
• Don't use any word that can be found in the dictionary — even foreign words
• Don't use passwords with double letters or numbers

The best passwords are at least eight characters in length and use a combination of numbers, keyboard characters and upper- and lower-case letters. The longer your password is, the longer it will take someone (or more likely, some program) to crack it.

A good password is one that is easy to remember but difficult to guess. That sounds like a paradox, but it's really not.

There are a couple of different ways to create difficult-to-crack passwords. One is substituting letters with characters and numbers. To make it easier on yourself, try to use numbers and characters that resemble the letters they are replacing.

For example, you would never want to use the word "password" as your password. If you change it to p@s5w0rd!, you've got something that would take some time to crack but is fairly simple to remember.

Some of the worst passwords are: password, qwerty, admin, secret, abc123, 123456, and the name of your company or department or your car's plate number.

Finally, never leave it blank. That's a surefire way to let the bad guys into your system.