Post by Leo on May 25, 2016 15:44:51 GMT
[Q1] Why should I choose my password carefully?
A haphazardly chosen password is easily guessed. It's not good enough to look around you for an object and to use that as a password. Some of the first things people are likely to try are "monitor" and "telephone". Similarly it's daft to use your wife's name as somebody could guess that too.
Tip: When changing your password take a look at your CAPS-LOCK and make sure it's not on, it's easy to leave it on accidentally and then wonder why you can't get access later.
[Q2] What is a good password?
A good password is one that is very difficult to guess. A good password will be long and use a wide range of characters in an unpredictable order. A good password is also one that you can remember easily and type in quickly so that anyone looking over your shoulder will not be able to see what you are typing.
[Q3] What is a bad password?
A bad password is more than just the opposite of a good password. Some passwords may look like good passwords on the face of it, that is they may seem to you to be difficult to guess but in actually fact they're bad.
The following is a list of passwords that are most definitely bad:
Passwords based on personal information such as: name, nickname, birthdate, wife's name, child's name, pet's name, friends name, mothers maiden name, home town, house number, street name, phone number, ID number, social security number, car registration number, address etc. This includes using just part of your name, or part of your birthdate.
Passwords based on objects located nearby at the time of choosing. Passwords such as "computer", "monitor", "keyboard", "telephone", "printer", etc. are useless.
Don't ever be tempted to use one of those oh so common passwords that are easy to remember but offer no security at all. e.g. "password", "letmein", "computer" or even the one that everybody has used at one time or another "" (blank).
Never use a password based on your username, account name, login name, computer name or email address.
A word plucked from a dictionary at random, this includes specialist or foreign language dictionaries.
Jargon, scientific, business, legal or musical terms.
A word from a science fiction or fantasy novel. e.g. "gandalf" or "klingon"
Brand names or product names
Offensive words, swear words.
Words spelled backwards
Keyboard sequences such as "querty" or "asdfghjkl"
Repeated characters such as "qqqqqqqq" or "44444444444"
A word preceded or followed by a number or symbol
Passwords you've seen other people use or you've seen given as example on this site or anywhere else are all bad, since they're known by others. Be original, it's not that difficult.
It might seem impossible that somebody would guess your mothers maiden name, but the fact is that any name chosen as a password is easy to guess.
[Q4] How long should it be?
Use at least eight characters. The more characters the better really, but most people will find more than 15 characters difficult to remember. See my password recovery speeds page for an evaluation of password lengths.
A haphazardly chosen password is easily guessed. It's not good enough to look around you for an object and to use that as a password. Some of the first things people are likely to try are "monitor" and "telephone". Similarly it's daft to use your wife's name as somebody could guess that too.
Tip: When changing your password take a look at your CAPS-LOCK and make sure it's not on, it's easy to leave it on accidentally and then wonder why you can't get access later.
[Q2] What is a good password?
A good password is one that is very difficult to guess. A good password will be long and use a wide range of characters in an unpredictable order. A good password is also one that you can remember easily and type in quickly so that anyone looking over your shoulder will not be able to see what you are typing.
[Q3] What is a bad password?
A bad password is more than just the opposite of a good password. Some passwords may look like good passwords on the face of it, that is they may seem to you to be difficult to guess but in actually fact they're bad.
The following is a list of passwords that are most definitely bad:
Passwords based on personal information such as: name, nickname, birthdate, wife's name, child's name, pet's name, friends name, mothers maiden name, home town, house number, street name, phone number, ID number, social security number, car registration number, address etc. This includes using just part of your name, or part of your birthdate.
Passwords based on objects located nearby at the time of choosing. Passwords such as "computer", "monitor", "keyboard", "telephone", "printer", etc. are useless.
Don't ever be tempted to use one of those oh so common passwords that are easy to remember but offer no security at all. e.g. "password", "letmein", "computer" or even the one that everybody has used at one time or another "" (blank).
Never use a password based on your username, account name, login name, computer name or email address.
A word plucked from a dictionary at random, this includes specialist or foreign language dictionaries.
Jargon, scientific, business, legal or musical terms.
A word from a science fiction or fantasy novel. e.g. "gandalf" or "klingon"
Brand names or product names
Offensive words, swear words.
Words spelled backwards
Keyboard sequences such as "querty" or "asdfghjkl"
Repeated characters such as "qqqqqqqq" or "44444444444"
A word preceded or followed by a number or symbol
Passwords you've seen other people use or you've seen given as example on this site or anywhere else are all bad, since they're known by others. Be original, it's not that difficult.
It might seem impossible that somebody would guess your mothers maiden name, but the fact is that any name chosen as a password is easy to guess.
[Q4] How long should it be?
Use at least eight characters. The more characters the better really, but most people will find more than 15 characters difficult to remember. See my password recovery speeds page for an evaluation of password lengths.