It is very important to create a password that you will remember.
A single-word password is not recommended as a password, because it is very vulnerable to a dictionary attack – when a computer runs through all the words in a dictionary until it finds your password.
It is highly recommended that you create a password that includes a combination of upper and lowercase alphabetic letters, and numbers. However, you must be able to commit your password to long-term memory or you may not be able to recall it. Picking a password on the spur of the moment is likely to result in forgetting it entirely. Choose something that is already in your long-term memory.
Some password do’s and don’ts:
- Don’t use your name, your address, or any similar personal information for your password.
- Don’t use any single word or pair of words.
- Don’t use a short password. Eight characters is the recommended length.
- Do use a mixture of lower and uppercase and digits: “m1Xed2kZ”
- Don’t use an easy to guess sequence like “qwerty” or “345678”
- Do use mnemonics to help you remember your password: “mpiNfy” – my password is not for you.
- Do change your password regularly.
- Don’t use any of the passwords listed here.
Examples of passwords that can easily be broken are:
- Passwords that are made up of a word or name in English or any other language
Transferring letters or numbers for similar ones (e.g., zeros for o’s) - Words with a number added to the beginning or end
- Your login name in any form (as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled, etc.)
- Your spouse’s or child’s name
- Any other information easily obtained about you. This includes license plate numbers, telephone numbers, social security numbers, the brand of your automobile, the name of the street you live on, etc.
- A password of all digits, or all the same letter. This significantly decreases the search time for password cracking software.
- Don’t use a password shorter than six characters.
Diceware
Diceware is a method for picking passphrases that uses dice to select words at random from a special list called the Diceware Word List. Each word in the list is preceded by a five digit number. All the digits are between one and six, allowing you to use the outcomes of five dice rolls to select one unique word from the list. Go to DiceWare to learn more. Get the word list. We highly encourage people to use DiceWare as it produces very strong passphrases that are impossible to crack.
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