Gwebs Cryptographer

Using a strong password is an important part of keeping your information secure. Even if you encrypt your data and email, using an easy-to-guess or machine-guessable encryption password makes encryption a completely moot point.

Creating a strong password doesn’t have to be hard. Making a strong password really is as simple as 1, 2, 3. Check it out.

Step 1: Start with a phrase that has meaning to you.

It can be a sentence from a book, a mash-up of the brands of various tech gadgets you have around the room, or your favorite place to go when relaxing. (Or whatever else you come up with.)

Security experts agree that longer passwords are harder to guess and thus, more secure. Passwords of at least 15 characters are recommended; starting with a phrase makes it easier to achieve this length.

Step 2: Make the password harder to recognize.

It’s important to not have complete words in any language, slang, dialect, or jargon in your password. Misspelling the words in your phrase is a simple way to make sure the words can’t be found in a dictionary.

Hackers use special dictionaries and go through all the words using all sorts of combinations to try to crack passwords.

Step 3: Add other character classes.

Every password should have a combination of numbers, symbols, and upper and lower-case letters. When choosing symbols, don’t confine yourself to the symbols contained on the upper-row of your keyboard.

Also, it’s not a good idea to substitute symbols that look like the letters they are meant to replace. (e.g. changing “think” to “th1nk”) Doing this seems like it would make passwords easier to remember, but it also makes passwords easier to guess because hacker dictionaries often contain these permutations.

And viola! Now you have a strong password that has at least 15 characters, contains multiple character classes, and is obscure (but easily remembered).

The next step is keeping your password private. Here are some general good practices in securing your passwords:

• Use different passwords. For example, create one password for work related accounts and another password for personal accounts.
• Never reveal your passwords to anyone. Ever. (Not over the phone, not in an email message, not in writing, not in person. When we say never, we mean never.)
• Don’t use the “Remember Password” feature in applications such as Firefox or Safari. These passwords get stored on your hard drive. Anyone with a little skill, motivation, and access to your computer can get at these passwords.
• Change your passwords regularly. Just to note: security experts are currently debating whether changing passwords regularly is absolutely necessary. However, if you have reason to believe a password has been compromised, change your password immediately.
• Don’t store passwords in a file on any computer system (including smart phones or similar devices) without encryption.
• Never use the example passwords contained in this article or in any other how-to post.

If you don’t already have strong passwords in place, now is as good a time as any to make some. Take the next fifteen minutes, make some strong passwords, and start protecting yourself today.

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