How Can We Make Our Passwords Stronger?

Most of the advice on passwords will have to do with the complexity of characters involved, and how to avoid a combination of words and letters that are easily guessed; however, equally crucial is the length of a password. No matter how complex a password is, if it’s short, it can be guessed in a short period of time regardless of its complexity. Therefore – the longer, the better.

Length: We are often told that a password needs to have at least 8 characters, but 12 is a strongly suggested minimum, and 20 characters is even better.

Complexity: We are told to use a password that’s alpha-numeric, using upper and lower cases, with special characters. This is one approach for creating a 12 character password.

Change Regularly: Regularly change your passwords, particularly for your most sensitive accounts. Definitely change them if you get an authenticated (not phishing) email telling you that a particular service has had user accounts and passwords compromised.

Think pass-phrase, not password! In the appropriate context, a helpful aid could be this comic from XKCD on Password Strength, to illustrate the true strength of a passphrase versus password.