Password Management

How to make a strong and secure password

The key to making a strong and secure password is using all types of characters, not just numbers or letters. Symbols and different cases should be used many times to make your password near unbreakable. The easiest thing to do is to think of a sentence describing yourself or something that you care about; for example, the sentence could be: "My Favorite Game Is Halo 3". Now, just take the beginning characters of the sentence: MFGIH3; to make it even more secure, replace the 'I' with a '1', and add two asterisks at the beginning and end, having it look like this: **MFG1H3**. Then, make alternate the letters from uppercase to lower case. Your finished password would be **MfG1h3**, and you can easily remember it from your sentence that you made.

Also, it is not recommended that you use common passwords, like 'QWERTY' or 'QAZWSX' or '12345', or 'let-me-in', or your name or birth date; because they are too obvious and easy for a hacker to crack.

Check the strength of your password at:

Microsoft's Password checker

Password Meter

How to store your password securely and safely

It is not recommended that you write your passwords down on a piece of paper or leave them all in one place, since they can easily be stolen. Some other options include encrypting your passwords using a password management software or some other tool.

Other Useful Links

• AnyPassword : http://www.anypassword.com/
• KeePass : http://keepass.info/
• LastPass : https://lastpass.com/
• Masking Password Generator : http://www.accusolve.biz
• Password Maker : http://passwordmaker.org/
• Quicky Password Generator : http://www.quickysoftware.com
• RandPass : http://www.randpass.com
• Robo Form : http://www.roboform.com/