Whenever you are using passwords there is a good reason for this. The reason is to protect information, for example to protect access to a website, or to protect a file from being opened by unauthorized users. If you use a password to protect your information you better protect it with a very strong password.
There are several ways that passwords can be broken:
- Guessing the password (simple passwords like the name of your girlfriend/boyfriend can be easily guessed)
- Trying many different passwords (computers are fast and can find passwords by trying many different passwords until they find the right one)
- Stealing the password (there is software that can spy on you and can steal the password while you type it)
Your strategy should be to minimize the risk that your password will be broken. Remember the following points:
- Don't use existing words as passwords. These are easy to guess, and computer programs can quickly use words in dictionaries until they find the correct password.
- Avoid passwords that consist only of numbers, or passwords with only lower case letters. Use a combination of numbers and letters (combine both lower case and upper case letters) and even other symbols such as $ or %. The reason is that this gives much strong password.
See also my page on password strength.
- Make the password as long as possible, but use at least 9 characters.
- Keep you computer clean from spyware and viruses. Scan your computer and remove all viruses and spyware, preferable daily, but at least once a week.