Secure Passwords

If you have a strong password, you are headed in the right direction to prevent cyber criminals.  By a strong password, it does not mean a long password with a lot of numbers.  It is important to use a variety of characters, letters, numbers, and symbols to ensure your password is secure.  While many passwords require a minimum of 8 characters, it is better to use more than this to prevent criminals from easily guessing your password.  In addition, you should not use common passwords such as your name, social security, pets name, last name, and hometown.

In order to make a secure password, you should use symbols such as !, @, #, etc.  Also, you should use a variety of letters such as capitals and lowercase.  You should also alternate from lowercase to uppercase and back.  A good way to think of a password is to use a random assortment of letters that do not even spell a word while incorporating numbers and symbols in the mix.  If the password has meaning to you or is considered a common fact about you, the password is most likely not a secure password and your accounts will be easily hacked.  In addition, if you use the same password for every account you would think it would be a good idea because you will not forget the password.  However, this is not a good idea because once a cyber criminal finds out your one password they then have access to all of your accounts.  If you are worried about forgetting your password, you can write them down and store them in a safe place.

http://www.security-faqs.com/how-do-i-deal-with-a-web-site-that-limits-the-type-of-password-i-can-use.html
http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/passwords/
https://howsecureismypassword.net
http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net