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Check the Strength of your Passwords
Category: 2008, Windows Tips Crate
Did you ever wonder how strong that password was you just created for your online bank account, Email address or your favorite new website.Well here’s a free online password checker from the folks at Microsoft, The Microsoft Password Checker. that will let you check the strength of your passwords.
Here are some tips to create a strong password.
- Your passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or longer is ideal.
- Combine letters, numbers, symbols and punctuation marks.
- Use upper and lower case letters.
- Use spaces or underscores.
- Think of a sentence or a phrase that’s easy to remember, then substitute some numbers and symbols for some the letters.
- Use the name of your favorite sports team, then the number of you favorite player then add the last 3 letters of the website you will use the password on. That way you can have an easy to remember password that will change with each use.
Example: steelers35kevinscrate = sTe_3#ate
I have been using a similar phrase for sometime now and its. It easy for me to remember and it changes with every place I use it
Or you can use a password generator like the one from GRC.com Very secure but just try to remember it. Or you can choose a Password Manager and there are hundreds of them on the web. I like RoboForm and KeePass
Password strategies to avoid:
- Avoid using your login name.
- Avoid sequences or repeated characters. “12345678,” “222222,” “abcdefg,”
- Avoid using Birthday’s of you family.
- Avoid dictionary words in any language.
- Avoid using the same password everywhere.
And one more thing keep your passwords SECRET
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I actually love the RoboForm software myself. I use it all of the time and it takes all the menial everyday tasks that I have to perform on my computer daily and shortens them extremely! What once took me fifteen minutes to complete now takes me only one second because RoboForm does the same task with just one click. In fact I wrote a Report about a lot of RoboForm’s capabilities for use that aren’t even touched on in the User’s Manual for RoboForm. You can get that Report here:
http://www.booksbonkers.com/TheRoboFormReport!.html
@ Omarra thanks for sharing your experience with RoboForm. I think RoboForm is an excellent program.
A note to my readers, Omarra is selling a report about RoboForm, I haven’t read it so I can’t judge its worth or quality.
Kevin.
A traveling alternative is an online password manager. I work for password which generates passwords, logs you into websites from anywhere and safely stores your passwords.
Could be an idea if you are looking for security-on-the-go.
Louise
@ Louise, Thanks for stopping by and letting us know about Passpack. http://passpack.com/info/home/ This looks like a nice service, I’ll have to sign up and give it a try.
Kevin.