Aim for passwords that are at least 12 characters long. The longer your password, the harder it is to crack. Each additional character exponentially increases the time needed for brute force attacks.
Use a combination of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special symbols. This increases the complexity and makes your password much harder to guess or crack.
Don't use sequential keyboard patterns (qwerty, 12345), repeated characters (aaaa), or common substitutions (p@ssw0rd). These patterns are well-known to hackers and easily cracked.
Never use easily guessable information like your name, birthday, anniversary, or pet's name. This information can often be found on social media and used in targeted attacks.
Use unique passwords for each of your accounts. This prevents a domino effect where one compromised account leads to all your accounts being compromised.
Password managers can generate and store strong, unique passwords for all your accounts. You only need to remember one master password to access all your credentials.
Creating passwords that are both secure and memorable can be challenging. Here are some techniques:
Create a sentence that's meaningful to you and use the first letter of each word. For example, "My first car was a blue Toyota Corolla bought in 2010!" becomes "MfcwabTCbi2010!"
Combine random words with numbers and symbols between them. For example, "elephant-7-banana-$-piano" is both memorable and secure due to its length and complexity.
Think of an object in the room and create a password based on your observations and associations. For example, looking at a blue lamp might inspire "BlueL@mp_Sh1nes_Br1ght!"