How to Choose a Strong Password

Using strong passwords and using a different password for each account or application is extremely important for securing your identity and financial information online. Coming up with a strong password means creating a password that is difficult to determine by password hacking programs but easy for you to remember when you log into your account.  Strong passwords are important for protecting your passwords from hackers.

What is A Strong Password?

A strong password is a password that contains a group of combined letters and numbers and, in some cases, symbols that make up a lengthy password that is difficult for hackers to guess with hacking software. A strong password should be in excess of 14 characters combining letters, numbers, and symbols. Although it is ideal to use everything that is available on your keyboard, some programs limit your password to a specified number of characters so it is best to make the most of the restrictions.

If the program allows passwords that are case sensitive, you can combine upper case with lower case letter combinations and then place a few symbols into the mix. Also avoid using proper words, since password hacking programs are capable of trying every word in the dictionary to guess your password. Also, try not to use a password that only contains the letters of the alphabet for the same reason.

What Is a Weak Password?

A weak password is a word that can easily be guessed by a password hacking program. Examples of a weak password would be "pass" or "make_money" or simply all of the letters included in one of the rows of your keyboard, such as "zxcvbnm" on the bottom row.

How to Choose a Strong Password

Strong passwords contain a mixture of all of the letters, numbers, and symbols that are available on your keyboard. They can consist of a random mixture of symbols or a combination of random symbols letters, and numbers.

For example, if you come up with a sentence that is easy for you to remember such as "My favorite hobby is hiking." You can take out the spaces and add in uppercase and lower case letters such as, myFavorIteHobByishiKing and then add some symbols into the mix like, myFavorite#HobBy%ishiKing&.

When you are finished you can also test the strength of your password by logging onto the Microsoft website and entering your password into the password checker. Also, remember not to store your password on your PC's hard drive and come up with a different password combination for every account to protect your passwords.

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Identity theft comes in many forms.

A person\92s identity can be 'borrowed' for the purpose of creating fictional credit cards or a person\92s entire identity can be usurped to the point where they can have difficulty proving that they really are who they claim to be.

Up to 18% of identity theft victims take as long as four years to realize that their identity has been stolen.

There are many ways to protect your personal identity and many steps you can take to prevent your identity from being stolen:

*Never give out unnecessary personal information
*Never provide bank details or social security numbers over the Internet
*Always remain aware of who is standing behind you when you type in your personal credit codes at ATM machines and at supermarket checkout swipe machines.