Although we're always told we should create "strong passwords" how exactly do we do that?
Here's how to create a strong password, check that its as strong as we think and also how to manage all your passwords from one secure cloud service.
Traditionally a strong password:
Has 12 Characters, Minimum: You need to choose a password that’s a decent length to make it harder to guess or crack. The longer the better but 12 is often thought of as long enough.
Includes: Numbers, Symbols, Capital Letters, and Lower-Case Letters:
Is not:
A simple word or combination of words simply taken from the dictionary.
Doesn’t Rely on Obvious Substitutions: Don’t use common substitutions, either — for example, “Str33t" isn’t strong just because you’ve replaced a letter with a number.
That said, its not that easy to come up with these great complex combinations that create strong passwords so we recommend the use of a strong password generator website like https://passwordsgenerator.net/
The great thing about the website is it allows you to choose from a range of factors including password length, whether to include symbols or numbers or upper and lower case characters.
Once you have obtained the randomly generated password we then recommend testing it with a password strength tester website like https://howsecureismypassword.net/
The cool thing about this is that you can find out how long the site thinks it will take to crack your password. Aim for your password to withstand at least a few years of constant cracking attempts. Go on give some of your current passwords a test!
And finally, once you have created these great passwords then use a secure cloud-based password manager to keep a track of all of them (the average person has to deal with about 80 passwords!).
Our recommended password manager is PassPortal and we can help you set this up for your business - see more at: https://www.i360cloud.net.au/password-management
Image source: Cyclonis