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:

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).

No names, please

Don’t use your name, first, last or middle, as your password. The three passwords that a hacker will try first is, “password”, “123456” and different combinations of your name. Same goes for the names of family members, pets, friends, etc. A lot of this information is easy for hackers to find and they won’t hesitate to use it against you.

No real words

If it’s in the dictionary, it’s a real word, and it doesn’t belong in your passwords. There is an entire method of password hacking called “dictionary attack” that exploits people’s tendency to use dictionary words in their passwords.

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.

Sharing is not caring

Don’t log in to important accounts on shared computers (your home family computer is fine, as long as you trust everyone at home). This includes library computers, shared office computers, etc. The same goes for public internet connections, like a public wifi hotspot at a coffee shop, web proxies, free VPN or Tor.

A VIP deserves a VPN

You can make sure your connections are encrypted when using your mobile devices by setting up a VPN (Virtual Private Network) on your home computer. Then, whenever you use your cell phone, tablet or laptop, connect to the VPN and this will encrypt all the data that is leaving your mobile device so that hackers and hacking software can’t read it.