How do I make more secure passwords?
Managing your passwords properly can be a lot of work and quite time consuming. An easier way to manage your passwords is by installing a password manager. This will automatically create strong and secure passwords for websites you access on your browser, or for your apps. Here are some companies that offer paid and free password managers:
Instead of an online password manager, you can opt to use a physical authentication device. It will allow you to securely log into your accounts. Some available options are:
If you do not want to use a password manager, or the password manager cannot be used for certain websites, you'll have to create your own strong and secure passwords. Here are some guidelines to do this:
- Use 12 characters minimum
- Include numbers, symbols, capital letters, and lower-case letters
- Don't use dictionary words or common (first/last) names
You can use one or both of these tricks:
- Use a sentence (e.g. line from a favorite song) and abbreviate it. For example "In 1986 Queen sang Who wants to Live Forever", could become 19>Qs#Ww2lf<86
- Come up with one strong password, and add some characters to it based on the website you want to access. This way you will only have to remember one password, but it will still be different for each website. For example, for your Facebook account you could add &FAC& to the above password, and create 19>Qs#&FAC&Ww2lf<86. For your Twitter account you could then add &TWI&, and create 19>Qs#&TWI&Ww2lf<86
Please don't use the above examples, but come up with your own creative solutions.
Also this:
- Don't reuse identical passwords for multiple accounts
- Don't write your passwords down
- Don't share your passwords
Additional resources:
