Home Internet Security How to Create Uncrackable Strong Passwords and Avoid Hackers

How to Create Uncrackable Strong Passwords and Avoid Hackers

Posted: September 26, 2014

create strong passwords how toAs adults, we find ourselves bombarded by daily tasks and the complexity of life in itself. To add insult to injury, we must go about our lives retaining numbers or codes that consist of many characters for our passwords to access a multitude of passwords over the internet and smartphone devices. Sometimes we may find ourselves taking the easy way out by formulating simple passwords like "0000" or "123456" or even "rover" because that's your dog's name.

Passwords are not just some random thing that we should all take for granted. Passwords are something that should be protected and thought of with a little creativity, which would ultimately make your life easier whether you know it or not. In reality, it doesn't take much to create the perfect password and to remember it.

Creating a strong enough password is essential now days. We have hackers who have full-fledged business that make it their objective in life to scam others by guessing passwords. Armed with the proper password, a hacker could be a dangerous and life-altering thing. Just think about it, if a hacker had the password or passwords to your online banking accounts, social networking accounts and email, he/she can do some serious damage and your life would probably never be the same. There are threats such as identity theft, theft of your money from your banking account or even the threat to your friends on social networks. The possibilities are virtually endless, and it is prudent that you take out the time to create a strong password, which isn't all that difficult in retrospect.

Tips to Help You Create Truly Strong Passwords

Turn phrases into codes – Some people are good at this and admittedly others are not. Simply put, you can create a good password by turning phrases that you utilize all the time into codes. As an example, if your best friend's name is Christopher and he drives a black BMW, you could turn "my best friend Christopher drives a black BMW" into "mbfcdabbmw." Yes, it is just that simple.

Mix up letters and numbers – Many times the requirement on several sites or banking account logins will require that you use a combination of letters and numbers in your password. You could take this opportunity to maybe jazz up the password mentioned previously from a created phrase as "mbfcdabbmw007."

Use 12 characters or more – This tip goes with the previous one as some online forms or banking logins will require that your password be at least 12 characters long. Forming a password with 12 characters greatly reduces the chance of someone guessing it. It is much easier to guess the password "super" versus "431superduper."

Avoid obvious passwords – This is almost a no-brainer here. Use of passwords like "123456" or "password" are just not going to fly and may end up being the initiator of a hacker infiltrating your online accounts. The very first thing people do to guess someone's password is to try out obvious combinations. Avoiding these will put you one step closer to protecting your best interest.

Don't reuse or recycle passwords – It is probably very easy to come up with one strong password and use it for every single online account that you log into. Well, as it turns out, this is a bad idea. The reason for this being a bad idea is in the event that your password is compromised for some unlucky circumstance. Now, a hacker has unadulterated access to ALL of your accounts and could do whatever he/she wants. They can even setup new accounts under your name by having access to your email and banking accounts at the same time. In this case, it is okay not to recycle.

Personalize your password by each site – This goes directly with the idea of never recycling your passwords. Each site or account that you log into should have its exclusive passwords. If ever one of the sites was attacked and hackers obtained login information, no one would be able to access any other of your accounts.

Stay logged off and avoid storing your passwords – Most people never think about this, but storing your password on your laptop computer can be a dangerous situation. In the unfortunate event that you laptop, tablet, smartphone or computer is stolen, the perpetrator could access accounts belonging to you because they now have your passwords. Additionally, if the same situation takes place and you are still logged into an account or many accounts, the attacker could then change your password or access your accounts without any roadblocks.

Keep a backup – As a last tip for handling your passwords, you should keep a backup of them on something that is accessible by the cloud. In other words, save a copy of your passwords on an excel document that can only be access by you through a service like dropbox or Google Drive, which will require that you access the information via a two-factor authentication method. In doing this, it is best to assure yourself that access to such an account is safeguarded, and no one else can access it.

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