Creating a Strong Password Appendix 1 - Rules

Most Sites/Security Systems agree on a basic set of rules to help make sure your password is sufficiently strong.  I will discuss the basic list.

Length

I just read an article about how 6 is NOT enough characters in your password.

They recommend 11 to 15 or more characters.    That's a lot to remember.

I used some of my tricks to  create a  password (13 characters long) and one of the password strength testers said it would take a desktop PC 51 million years to break!  That's pretty secure!


Don't Use Real Words

Most services and systems recommend NOT using a word you can find in a dictionary.

But what about words from a language that is not your native tongue?  How about from a dead language that is no longer spoken?

That might work.


Do Use Numbers

One way to use numbers is to substitute numbers for letters.   This is a BAD example, but what if you spelled the word PASSWORD like this?    P455w0rd   ?  Again that was a bad example.

Here are some number/letter substitutes:

L=1
Z=2
E=3
A=4
S=5
G=6
B=8
O=0


Do Use Special Characters

They recommend you use any of the followings Special Characters in your password:

~ ! @ # $ % ^ & *  ) _ + - = [ ] \ { } | : ; < > ? / \

for more info on that see:  Creating a Strong Password Appendix 3 - Special Characters


Do Use Both Upper and Lower Case Letters

This is a simple thing to do.  Just simply capitalize a random letter (or letters) in your password.

Example:   pasSworD


Reduce Repeating Characters

This is not only double letters:  paSSword, bOOKKEEper, or chEEse,

but a number, letter or special character that is used more than once in the password, like:

rHytHm, lEvEl, chEEsE, 18614,  or $tuise$


Avoid patterns

Patterns exist in numbers and letters.  Avoid anything like the following:

QWERTY    (Top row of Letters on Keyboard)
ASDFGHJKL   (2nd row of Letters on Keyboard)
ABABABABA  (
!@#$%^&  (Special Characters in order on very top row of keyboard)

13579  (Odd Numbers)
246810  (Even Numbers)

11235813  (Fibinachi Sequence)
3.14159  (Pi)
E=Mc2 (Einstein's Theory of Relativity)


Avoid Sequential lists

Avoid anything like the following:

ABCDEF
12345
ZYXWVUTS
5678XYZ