How to create secure passwords
“Bobby“, “Frank” and “Supercar“. If at least one of these words approaches tremendously to the password that you usually use to access your favorite Web services, obviously you have not yet understood well the importance of using sufficiently secure passwords. Yet this is an important aspect, which can not fail to pay due attention, since having secure passwords ensures a certain degree of protection against privacy violations and identity theft.
Fortunately for you, you’ve come to the right place at the right time! In the next paragraphs, in fact, I will give you some general tips on how to create secure passwords, I will show you how you can actually create them (showing you a couple of solutions to generate passwords automatically) and, to conclude, I will show you how to keep your credentials access to online sites and services securely.
Are you interested in the subject and can not wait to elaborate on it? Well, what are you waiting for? Make yourself comfortable, take all the time you need to concentrate on reading the next lines and implement the “tips” that I will give you. You’ll see, at the end of this reading you will no longer have any doubts about how to create and keep secure passwords. Enjoy the reading!
How to create secure passwords – Tips for creating secure passwords
How to create secure passwords
If you want to create secure passwords, you can not leave things to chance: you need to know exactly what the access keys to your accounts absolutely must have in order to be reasonably secure (absolute security in the computer world as well as in life, does not exist). Below I’ll give you a sort of “identikit”, if you allow me to define it like that, of the “ideal” password. These are simple, but very practical and useful tips: make good use of them!
- Long – if a password is long enough, it will be unlikely that any attacker will be able to easily intercept it. Many online services consider a long password when it is composed of at least 8 characters, but I suggest you use a bit longer passwords to further increase their security level. The advice that I give you is therefore to use passwords that are composed of 15-20 characters.
- Composed of invented words – if you use the name of your dog, your girlfriend’s name or a word from a movie quote (as in the example shown at the beginning), you run the risk that your password will be easily guessed. Therefore, avoid using access keys that contain information of a personal nature (your date of birth, the names of your family members, etc.) since they could easily be found by cybercriminals (or friends who are notorious who know you). Instead, it uses invented words containing numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters and symbols (!,?, £, $,%, &, #, +, _, §, etc.), so as to avoid dictionary-based attacks. Do not even use sequences of easily identifiable numbers and letters (eg “12345678”, “qwertyuiop” or “asdfghjkl”).
- Constantly updated – since there is no “perfect” password in the absolute sense, it is best to update it often, maybe every 30-40 days.
- New and different for each site / service – do not use passwords already used in the past, create new ones using the criteria I have just provided. Above all, do not use passwords already used for other accounts: if someone unfortunately failed to pick up one of your passwords, all your accounts would be at risk!
How to create secure passwords – Methods to create secure passwords
How to create secure passwords
After giving you some general information on how to choose a bomb-proof password (or better, a cracker), it’s time to reveal some of the main methods for creating secure passwords, so that you can better understand the various points that I have listed in the previous lines (but I recommend, do not use the example passwords indicated below).
A first method consists in replacing the letters of a meaningful word made with special characters. It is a rather well-known and at the same time effective method, since it not only allows you to create secure passwords, but also easy to remember. I’ll give you a practical example, so that you can better understand what it consists of.
Let’s say you want to use the word “salvatoredelmondo96” as a password. You can replace some letters with symbols in order to make the password safe and at the same time easy to remember (eg the “S” replaces with “$”, the “a” replaces with “@”, etc.) . The final result could be this: $ @ lvator € delmondo96.
Another method, in some ways similar to the one I have just described, consists in making phonetic and graphic substitutions. Also in this case you have the advantage of having a password that is easy to remember and, above all, safe. I’ll once again give you a practical example so you can understand the point.
Let’s put the case that you want to use the word “seipiùùbellodigiuseppe” as a password. You can replace some of the sounds in this sentence with letters and symbols (eg “sei” becomes “6” and “plus” becomes “+”). The final result could be similar to this: 6 + b € llodig! Us € pp €.
If you’re a bit ‘lazy’ and you do not have much imagination, you could use a password generator to create access keys that are sufficiently secure. Below I show you how a couple of these services work. I hope they will help you.
How to create secure passwords – Symantec password generator
How to create secure passwords
Symantec, the well-known software house that develops antivirus and IT security systems of various kinds (many of which are marketed under the Norton brand), allows you to use for free the password generator on your website (from which you can also install the Norton Identity Safe extension that allows you to create and manage passwords).
To use the Symantec password generator, linked to its official website, type the number of characters that must be composed in the text field located next to the word “Password Length“, check all the boxes located at the bottom (in fact they should already have the check mark) and then select from the appropriate drop-down menu the amount of password you need. To conclude, click on the orange Create password button and on the next page you will be shown the passwords created based on the criteria you have just set.
How to create secure passwords – PasswordG (Windows)
How to create secure passwords
If you want to create passwords when you’re offline, you can use some ad hoc programs to generate passwords, like PassworG, a free program for Windows that allows you to create secure passwords in a few clicks.
To generate passwords with PasswordG, first connected to your Internet site, select the Download tab, located at the top of the page and then click on the Download button to download the program on your PC.
Next, double-click the zip archive you just downloaded (passworg.zip) and extract the contents to any folder. Then start the program PassworG.exe and, in the window that opens, type in the fields Lenght and Number the number of characters that must compose the password generated and the amount of keywords that the program must create. Put the check mark next to the entry Readable (if you want to get relatively easy to remember passwords) and then click on the Generate button to generate your passwords.
To test the security level of passwords generated by PassworG, double click on them and wait for the program to analyze them (it takes just a few minutes). At the end of the operation, PassworG will show you some suggestions to make the analyzed keyword even safer (the warnings next to the yellow symbol, which are at the bottom of the window). Follow them to the letter (usually it’s a matter of adding one or two characters to the keyword) and you’ll get an almost impenetrable password, which is ideal for keeping any attacker away.
How to create secure passwords – Keep your passwords in a safe place
How to create secure passwords
After creating sufficiently secure passwords, you will almost certainly have to deal with another “problem”: where to keep them? This is a question far from obvious, given that the number of accounts in our possession is constantly growing (every day we use a lot of social networks, home-banking services, e-commerce sites, etc.).
Since remembering them all by heart is almost impossible and putting them on display on the PC screen with a post-it is anything but prudent, I suggest you use a good password manager, or a program that allows you to close in a sort of “virtual safe” the keys to access their accounts and which can be accessed using a master password, called master password. It is a convenient and above all safe solution.
Below you will find the features of two very famous password managers. You can deepen their operation by reading the tutorials that are listed below.
- 1Password (Windows / macOS / Android / iOS) – it is more than one of the most appreciated and famous password managers. 1Password presents a well-designed user interface that makes it easy to use and allows you to keep passwords for access to various types of Web services, social networks, e-mails and so on and even integrates a password generator that allows you to create secure in an easy and fast way. 1Password can be used for free for only 30 days, then you have to subscribe to one of the available subscription plans (starting from $ 3.99 per month) to use them. For more details on 1Password, read the tutorials where I talk about how to manage passwords and how to use apps to keep passwords.
- LastPass (Windows / macOS / Android / iOS) – even this password manager is very appreciated for its ease of use and for the fact that it allows to manage all the access data to online services, social networks, websites and via on. LastPass is a freemium solution: you can use the basic functions of creating and managing passwords for free, but to access some extra features, such as the one that allows you to upload files to the LastPass cloud, you need to subscribe to the Premium subscription. starting at $ 2 a month. For more details about the operation of LastPass, read the tutorials in which I explain how to manage passwords and how to use apps to keep passwords.
How to create secure passwords