When creating/registering a new account on online platforms, users are always advised to create “strong” passwords. Some websites even have a meter that measures the strength of a password and recommends if your password combination is weak or strong.
There are some rule of thumb that should be followed when creating a password for your account. Also, there are some passwords you should NEVER use to secure your account bad they are easy to crack. Generally though, a strong password is one that is essentially very difficult for a random person to guess or crack.
Enough talk. Let’s take a look at some of things that makes a password “strong”.
Components of a strong password
A strong password is lengthy. And by lengthy, security experts advise that a strong password should have at least 15 characters. It could be 18, 20, 25, or even 40 characters. The lengthier the better, but ensure that you can remember it off the top of your head.
2. Letter-Number mix
Secondly, a strong password is one that uses a mix of letters and numbers. And alphanumeric password (e.g Gjaiodbsb128963) is stronger and way more secure than one with alphabets or numbers only. What would even make your password stronger is ensuring that it contains letters, numbers, and has at least 15 characters (s stated in 1 above).
3. Symbols/Special Characters
Adding symbols or special characters that aren’t numbers or alphabets to your passwords also makes it stronger and difficult to hack. A strong password should contain at least one symbol ([email protected]#$%^#* etc.)
4. Letter casing
When creating a password, it is recommended that you come up with a strong one by using both lower and uppercase letters. Most of the time, passwords are case sensitive. So if your password is “lionKING12345” but an intruder types in “lionking12345,” (s)he wouldn’t be able to access your account because some letters of your password are in uppercase.
A strong password contains a random mixture of both lower and uppercase letters.
These are basically all you need to make your password strong. Strong enough to secure your account(s) and make it hard (and ultimately impossible) to be guessed, hacked, leaked, or cracked. Lengthy, lower & uppercase letters, alphanumeric, and use of symbols and special characters. That’s all.
The importance of a strong password can or be overstated. That’s why you must ensure you secure your account with one. And if creating a password seem like a difficult task, there are efficient and secure password management tools and password managers that can suggest strong passwords to you.
The length and complexity can create a stronger password, and make it more difficult for the hackers to break!