Having a simple or easily guessed password is like giving a stranger the key to your house. Obviously we all try to create passwords we will remember, but it is important to remember that the key to almost every bit of data on your computer comes down to a password. It will benefit you to choose a password which is not difficult for you to remember, but hard for another person (hacker) to figure out, as well as being one you don’t have to write down to remember.

Passwords should be a minimum of 6 characters long, 7 to 15 characters are the strongest. Passwords should contain mixed-case alphabetic characters, upper and lower case AND non-alphabetical characters such as numbers as well as at least one special character such as @, #, or %.

Passwords should NOT contain your first or last name in any form, your user ID, your spouse’s, child’s or pet’s name. Nor should you use personal information such as your birthday, family dates, phone numbers or street name. Company specific words such as McDonald’s, Wal-Mart, or Mercedes should be avoided. A real threat is common words which are found in a dictionary, spelling list or other lists of words.

Although it may appear to be difficult to find a good password which you can remember, it really isn’t that hard. You can choose a line from a song or book and use the first letter of each word, for example: From Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade – Into the valley of Death rode the six Hundred, could become ItvoDrt6h. You could choose a short word or group of words and replace one or more of the letters with a symbol or number, the * works for any letter, the number 1 does well as an L or an I and a 3 can serve as an E. the @ symbol can substitute for the letter A and the & can take the place of the word ‘and’ New Jersey could become N3W_JE*s3y.

Change your passwords often, at least every two months. Make sure new passwords are not the same as any of your last 10 passwords. Do not write it down and do not tell it to anyone except your system administrator. Don’t let a password be the weakest link in the security chain. It may appear to be a nuisance to you, but a strong password can prevent lost income for your company and event prevent theft from you personally when you consider passwords for your debit card or online banking.