Here’s some advice about creating strong passwords. Passwords that are strong enough to resist hacking by unauthorised people yet easy enough to remember are an essential part of your computer security, whether for use on a local computer that is used by several people, or when logging in to a banking or shopping site on the Internet.
When thinking about passwords, the tendency is to find a neat password and use it for everything, mainly because it’s easier to remember. NO! No! No! Although you could argue that one secure password is better than lots of insecure passwords, if someone cracks your password, they can get into everywhere you have used it. It is much better to have unique passwords, especially if you bank online, or regularly use the internet for shopping or use other programs where there is sensitive data being used or displayed.
Passwords must be unique and should be at least 8 digits long, preferably 12 with both letters and numbers. It is best to avoid writing down your passwords anywhere, as others could access this or you could lose the bit of paper you wrote it on.
Password Management software
I use a Password Management software program to store my passwords - for me this is part of my general Anti-virus/Security software, but there are other programs available that can store your passwords. You can also use your Internet Browser to store your passwords, e.g. Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox all provide this facility, although using one of these could restrict you to using only that program for internet access. If you have a simple tool for password storage/retrieval, you can be really creative in your passwords. You are no longer going to be using the same password. You’re going to make up new ones every time you join a new program or find a new shop on the Internet. Nothing will protect you more than this. This is the way to create strong passwords secure enough to keep the toughest hackers at bay.
2-Factor Authentication
2-factor Authentication is a more secure way of login access that does not rely on just the password to access the site. You will be asked for a phone number or email address, and the system will send a code to that address that has to be added to the login page. So only the owner of the phone/email account can complete the process. This facility is increasingly being used to provide more secure login access to websites such as shopping and utility sites.
Passkeys
Passkeys are another secure process allowing access to a secure website. For these, a secret key is set up just on your device, and the website knows tis key and will ask your device for the key before allowing access. No entered passwords are required for this process, so it is much easier for the user. You may be asked for your main PC login password or your PIN/fingerprint if you are on your phone in order to verify your ID. This system is being introduced but is not yet available on all sites.
Strong Passwords
Let me give you some examples of creation of strong, secure passwords. Take a look around your desk. You might find a Untility bill, 3 pens and a stapler. Okay, so how about creating a strong password as util3staples. That’s 12 characters. Let’s make the password even more secure. My Utility bill is £57. How about changing the password to 57util3staples. That is now a 14 character password that would be hard to crack. There is nothing in there that relates to you, your dog, your birthdate, your house number, your post code. Now that’s a perfect password.
Most passwords are case-sensitive, so you could capitalise a letter, for instance in the example above we could change it to 57uTil3stAples. Another way for further sophistication for secure passwords, is to convert letters to numbers that look similar, such that you can still read the word. Thus a letter ‘O’ becomes the number zero, a letter ‘S’ becomes the number 5, and so on. If you keep your creative hat on, there is plenty of scope for creating secure, strong passwords, and maybe as the software develops, the need for passwords will be removed in the future!