Choosing a strong password

 

Password regulations on some sites are getting better these days – requesting more complex passwords in order to ensure confidentiality. So what constitutes a strong password?

 

A complex password should have the following characteristics:

• Minimum of 10 characters
• Minimum of 1 alpha character
• Minimum of 1 upper case character
• Minimum of 1 digit
• Minimum of 1 special character (!@ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + | - = \ ‘ { } [ ] : ” ; ’ < > ? , . / )

Passwords should not:

• Be less than 6 characters long
• Be a word in any language, slang or jargon
• Use predictable information such as your birthday, address or phone number
• Be a word or number patterns such as aaabbb, zyxwvut, 123321, etc.
• Be an obscenity
• Be based on personal information, names of family, pets, friends, co-workers, fantasy characters, etc.

Examples of what constitutes as a complex password (think of using pass phrases as opposed to passwords):

          1L0veh0ckey!    Myd0giSwh1te  Gre@tne55!

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