All About Passwords

​Did you know that the average American has 26 online accounts¹?  That’s a lot of passwords to remember! Passwords are now a bigger part of our lives than they were in the past because a lot of our activity is now done online. A lot of these accounts contain some amount of personal information, so it’s important to keep them safe and secure. Let’s review some tips for making great passwords for your accounts.

Strong Passwords

A strong password is a password that’s hard to guess. Criminals have been learning common password trends and will guess those “weak” passwords first. That’s why it’s important to have a strong password. They should be:

• Unique
• 8 to 12 characters long
• Made up of letters and numbers (both upper and lower case). For extra strength, you can also use symbols, such as #, @, or &.

On the other hand, here are some password DON’TS:

• Do not include personal information. This could be easy to guess because it might be publicly available.
• Do not base them on hobbies or family members. This also might be easy to guess.
• Do not use a predictable pattern (such as abcdef123456).
  
• Do not use complete words.
• Do not use your real name or user name.
• Do not use the same password for everything. If someone cracks one of your accounts, they’ll be able to crack all of them.
  
  

A lot of people complain about strong passwords. This is because even though they’re hard to guess, they’re also hard to remember. However, there is a way you can make your passwords more memorable without weakening them. You can try using a phrase, sentence, or acronym, then replace parts of it with numbers and symbols. In this case, you should also try spelling words wrong and using random capitalization. This PDF gives the example “I<n0tmyP3n$il” for “knot my pencil.”

Keeping your Password Safe

You will need to write down your passwords somewhere, in case you forget them. When you do this, you could use something like a sticky note, notebook, or notepad. Just remember to hide them somewhere out of sight. You could put them in a hidden spot in your closet, bury them in a clothes drawer, or lock them in a drawer at work. If you use a notebook, it also helps if you don’t label it “passwords.” This will make it less obvious what is in the notebook. You could even use a notebook with other things in it, if there’s still space left. If you have a file cabinet or file box, you could store your passwords there. However, try not to store files of your passwords on your computer or in the cloud. If someone hacks into your computer or it is lost or stolen, whoever finds it can access all of your accounts and you don’t have your passwords anymore!

Here are a few other tips for keeping your passwords safe:

• Changing your passwords occasionally is a good idea.
  
• Be original! Don’t pick consecutive letters on a computer keyboard like "QWERTY." Don't use “password” or “1234.”
• Make sure you have antivirus software.
• Do not share your passwords with anyone.

Recovering Passwords

Forgetting your password can be stressful, but it’s nothing to worry about! Most websites have easy password recovery systems. If you forget, go to the site’s login page and look near the password box for a link. It will usually be called “Forgot your password?” or “Need help?”  On some sites (like Facebook), this link is on the home page. On others (such as Illinois workNet) it’s on the login page, which you can get to by clicking the site’s login link.

Every website is different, and that means the password recovery process may be different too. Some examples include websites sending you an email with a link to recover your password, sending a text message with a code, or asking you to answer personal questions you’ve set-up in your account.

Keeping your information private online is critical. Use these tips to create strong passwords and keep them safe.

1 - https://www.quora.com/How-many-online-accounts-does-the-average-American-person-have

All About Password by Illinois workNet is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.