The Effective Method For Selecting A Password For Your Internet Accounts And Devices

We all have sensitive information stored on our internet accounts that we wish to keep safe. The majority of it is password-protected. Making a really strong password should be the best option. However, as we all know, there is a narrow line between choosing a password that no one else can guess and one that is easy for you to remember.

There are, however, numerous methods and ideas for creating strong passwords, such as employing a unique password generator program. We'll walk you through our best practices and techniques for selecting and creating strong passwords for your online accounts. And we’ll share some of our favorite methods for keeping your passwords safe and ways of making sure you don’t have to hit the “Forgotten password” link ever again.

What is a strong password?

A strong password is one that a brute force attack cannot guess or crack. Hackers use computers to try different combinations of letters, numbers, and symbols to find the correct password. Short passwords made up of merely letters and digits can be cracked in seconds by modern computers.

As such, strong passwords consist of a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special symbols, such as punctuation. They should be at least 12 characters long, although we’d recommend going for one that’s even longer.
Overall, here are the main characteristics of a good, secure password:
Is at least 12 characters long. The longer your password is - the better.
Uses uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special symbols. Passwords that consist of mixed characters are harder to crack.

Best way to choose a password for your online accounts and devices

Doesn't contain memorable keyboard paths.
Is not based on your personal information. Password is unique for each account you have.
When you’re setting up an online account, there’ll often be prompts reminding you to include numbers or a certain number of characters. Some may even prevent you from setting a “weak password”, which is usually one word or number combination that’s easy to guess.
But even if you don’t get reminded to set a strong password, it’s really important to do so whenever you’re setting up a new online account or changing passwords for any existing account.

A long password is a good password
When it comes to password security, length really does matter. We recommend opting for a password that’s at least 12 characters long, even longer if you can.
Each additional symbol in a password exponentially increases the number of possible combinations. This makes passwords over a certain length essentially uncrackable, assuming you’re not using common phrases.

A strong password isn’t obvious
A good password needs to be something that’s really difficult for someone else to guess or crack, so don’t go for anything really generic, like “password” or “12345”. The latter two choices are still among the most popular passwords in the world, and they’re also among the least useful.
Good passwords can’t contain memorable keyboard paths
Don’t use sequential keyboard paths, like “qwerty”, as hackers are likely to crack these. If you spent no effort in thinking of a good password, the chances are the hackers won’t need much effort to crack it.

Password strength isn’t personal
It’s really important that you don’t use anything personal to you, like a nickname, your date of birth or your pet’s name. This is information that’s really easy for a hacker to find out simply by looking at your social media, finding your online work profile or even just by listening in on a conversation you’re having with someone else.

A good password should be one-of-a-kind.

Once you've created a secure password, you may be tempted to use it for all of your online accounts. However, doing so makes you more exposed to several attacks.

After all, if a hacker discovers your password, they will be able to access every account you use that password for, which might include your emails, social media, and work accounts.

Because it is easy to remember, many people use the same password for everything. But don't worry, we've got plenty of tips and techniques to help you manage several passwords lower down the page.

Avoid past passwords
It’s also really important to make sure you don’t recycle your passwords, particularly if they’ve been hacked before. This may seem obvious, but once you’ve used a password, you shouldn’t reuse it. Even if you haven’t used it for years, it’s best to come up with a new one. Especially if you’ve had issues with a password being hacked in the past.
Special characters in passwords
Although using special characters in your passwords is a really good way of making them extra secure, not all online accounts allow you to use any symbol you like. But most will allow you to use the following:

Good password examples
Here are some good examples of strong passwords:
X5j13$#eCM1cG@Kdc
%j8kr^Zfpr!Kf#ZjnGb$
PkxgbEM%@hdBnub4T
vUUN7E@!2v5TtJSyZ
They all consist of a seemingly random and long (more that 15 characters) collection of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. These passwords are not generic, and don't contain any memorable keypaths or personal information which hackers could use.

Ideas for creating a good password

Fortunately, there are numerous steps you can take to create unique and strong passwords for each of your online accounts. We have a password generating program that generates unique, nearly impossible-to-crack passwords. Alternatively, you should follow our top suggestions and ideas for creating a strong password:

Make use of a password generator.

If you don't have time to create your own unique and secure passwords, a password generator is a quick and easy option to get one. Our secure password generator will generate a random string of characters. Make a note of it and use it as a password for your device, email, social media account, or anything else that requires secret access.

Instead of a password, use a passphrase.

Passwords are less secure than passes since they are often lengthier, making them more difficult to guess or brute force. Instead of a word, choose a phrase and use the first letters, digits, and punctuation from that phrase to construct an apparently random combination of characters. To make it even more secure, you can replace the first letter of a word with a number or symbol. Or, if you can remember back that far, try substituting out words for punctuation as we used to do in the days of text slang.

Note: Don’t use common phrases, because these are vulnerable to dictionary attacks – random combinations are what you want.
Opt for a more secure version of dictionary method
A popular method for choosing a password is to open a dictionary or book and choose a random word. But, as random as it may seem to you, a single word is actually quite easy for a hacker to guess.
So rather than opting for just one word from the dictionary, choose a few and string them together along with numbers and symbols to make it much trickier for someone to figure out.

Related: Windows Firewall may not be enough protection for Your Device

How to keep your passwords safe

Now that you’ve set up a strong password for each of your online accounts, the next step is to keep them safe and secure from hackers.

Here are some of our top tips on how to do that:


Choose a good password manager

We strongly recommend utilizing a solid password manager, whether you've established your own strong passwords or are looking for an online service to do it for you. A safe password manager creates, stores, and manages all of your passwords in a single secure online account. This is quite beneficial since it allows you to use as many unique passwords as you like without having to memorize them.

All you have to do is save all of your passwords for all of your online accounts in your password manager and then safeguard them with a single "master password." This means you only need to remember one strong password rather than all of them.

Once you’ve got your password manager set up, whenever you go to login to one of your online accounts, you simply type your master password into your password manager and it’ll auto-fill in your login details for this account. You don’t even need to remember which email address or username you used.


Use two-factor authentication
Even if someone does manage to steal your password, you can still prevent them from accessing your account by adding in an additional layer of security with two-factor authentication (2FA). This means that anyone trying to login to your account will have to enter a second piece of information after the correct password. This is usually a one-time code that’ll be sent directly to you.

Sometimes this will be sent to you via text message, although this isn’t necessarily the most secure way of receiving that code. After all, a hacker could steal your mobile number through SIM swap fraud and access your verification code.

We’ve found it’s much safer to use a two-factor authentication app instead, as they’re much trickier to intercept. Our favourites include:

• Google Authenticator
• Microsoft Authenticator
• Authy

Check to see if your email has been compromised.

Of course, it's critical to stay on top of any data breaches, particularly those involving your email account.

But how can you tell if your email address has been compromised? We have an online personal data leak detector that will notify you if anything like this has occurred with your email account. All you have to do is enter your email address, and we'll notify you if anything happens to it.

Don't share your password.

Last but not least, it is critical to keep your passwords hidden. Even if you completely trust the person to whom you are giving your password, sending a password via text message or email is risky in case it is intercepted. Even if you're just reading it over the phone or spelling it out to the person next to you, someone could be listening in and taking notes.

Conclusion: so how do I make all my passwords hacker-proof?
Passwords are like the lock on your apartment door – they're the one thing criminals have to go through if you're not home. Having a weak password is like a weak lock. It greatly increases the number of people who have the means to access your accounts.

Using all the tricks in this article to create strong, memorable passwords is a good place to start increasing your security. Alternatively, get a strong password manager like NordPass and generate all your passwords automatically - that way, you won't have to remember any of them.

Whichever course you decide to take, don't put it off! Data leaks and breaches happen every day, and the next one could have your password in it.