Do you have a strong password?

Recently the most used passwords were announced by Splashdata. You can follow the link to see the list - https://www.teamsid.com/worst-passwords-2015/.

The top three being password, 123456 and 12345678.

Passwords used to be simple 6-8 character words but with so many software packages able to crack simple passwords, we need to ensure that the most common source of security works for us. Here are some basic rules. At a recent security seminar, a speaker was suggesting that a password needed to be at least 25 characters long to be effective! (try remembering numerous 25 character passwords)

1. Make sure you use a password that is not linked to you personally, so no names, birthdates, addresses, pet names, children names, etc.

2. The best passwords are a mixture of lower case and upper case characters, numbers and symbols and should be at least 10 characters long.

3. The longer the password, the more difficult you make it for a hacker to access your information.

4. Make sure you have different passwords for different things. Your work passwords should be different from your personal ones.

5. Change passwords regularly, at least every three months and more regularly for sensitive information access. Work based computer systems can be set to prompt the change of password on a regular basis and this should be part of your password policy.

6. Do not write your passwords down on a sheet of paper or on a post it note stuck by the desk  - I have been to a number of organisations where this was the case!

7. For businesses, do not share passwords between colleagues. Each member of staff should have their own individual login and you shouldn't share your passwords with someone else.

8. Do not use characters which are adjacent to each other on the keyboard. So no qwerty, zxcvbnm, etc.

9. One of the best ways to create a password is either to use a phrase, song lyric or opening sentence of a book.You could use the initials of the sentence instead of the whole sentence if you want, even better if you add punctuation as well.

10. If you are using your web browser to store your passwords for websites make sure you use the master password option, otherwise anyone who has access to your machine has access to all your passwords.

11.There are online security services which can help users safeguard passwords, these include LastPass, DashLane, and 1Password. These store passwords and user names in the cloud and are secured with a master password (make sure it is a strong password). Additionally, there are ones which will store passwords on your computer, these include Roboform, PasswordSafe or Keepass. If you can't remember the master password you are pretty much out of luck.

As your password is one of the key lines of security for your information, make it the best it can be.