How a password generator can help you create a strong password

Each day, our lives become more inseparable from the internet; we email instead of call, we stay in touch with social media, we shop online, bank online, etc. And each of our online accounts requires a password. We all know that choosing a strong password is important for internet security, but nonetheless many of us opt for weak passwords simply because they are easier to remember and keep track of. While it is inconvenient to create very strong passwords, the potential fallout from having your accounts hacked will be much more inconvenient. Don’t worry; after reading this article, you’ll be a pro when it comes to knowing whether a password is strong, and we’ll give you a handy secure password generator to take some of the guesswork out of creating a strong password.

Here are the top cyber security factors to make a strong password and accessing your accounts:

Each password should be unique

This takes extra work on your part, for sure. But imagine what would happen if a hacker cracked just one of your passwords—a password that you use to access several different accounts. The hacker would now be free to sign in to any of the accounts using that password. Don’t make a hacker’s job any easier!

Longer is better

Depending on the hacking method used, a six-letter password, with no numbers or capital letters (“orange”, for example), may take up to 10 minutes to hack, or as little as 1 second if a fast attack hacking program is being used. By adding extra letters to our password (for example, “orangemarmelade”), it will now take months to hack, and adding numbers and special characters (“Orang3marme!ade”) will take centuries to crack, even using the most powerful hacking software. Put another way, changing “orange” to “oranges” will increase the amount of items a hacking program must search through 26 times, for 26 letters in the alphabet. But substituting a zero for the “o”, “0range” increases it 260 times (26 letters x 10 numbers), and “orange!” increases it up to 8,580 times! (26 letters x 10 numbers x up to 33 special characters).

Change is good

Make sure your password can be changed, if need be. Fingerprints and retinal scans seem like ideal passwords, except they can be replicated with the right technology, and they can’t be changed. You can create unique, strong easily changeable passwords with our passwords generator.

And clean out the cloud

Don’t store any important passwords in the cloud, for the same reason as #7. Online storage is easily hacked into.

To change, or not to change?

The standard recommendation is to change your passwords every 8-12 weeks. If you’re using a good random password generator to create strong passwords all the time, and storing them safely (see #13), then changing passwords regularly is a good security measure. If, however, changing passwords often will just make you go back to weaker, easy to remember passwords, like your pet’s name, don’t bother. It’s better to have a really strong password, and keep it forever, than to have a new weak password every 3 months.

Two heads are better than one

If your account has the option, turn on 2-step verification. This adds an extra layer of security by not only requiring you to enter your password correctly, but also entering a code that the system will send to your email, SMS text messages, mobile or landline phone. This way, even if a hacker gets access to your password, your account will still be protected because he doesn’t have access to your phone or email account