Whats Your Password?

A strong password (one that is not easily guessed by a human or computer) will have eight or more characters, including letters, numbers and symbols. Make sure to use different user IDs and passwords for your financial accounts and for any other sites you use online. Check out our best tips for creating a strong password.

When creating a strong password, length matters. Try to make sure it’s at least eight to 10 characters. Complexity also helps. For instance, a six-letter, lowercase password could take five minutes to break; one with nine letters could take two months. A six-character password that alternates numbers and symbols could take less than nine days to break, but one with nine characters could take a cybercriminal nearly 20,000 years to figure out.

Every year security services provider SplashDataFootnote1 releases the most common (and therefore the worst) passwords in use. And every year “123456” and “password” are at the top of the list. Don’t use those passwords-and don’t use common dictionary words or consecutive numbers when creating your password. Passwords with simple patterns, such as “1234” or “qwerty,” or with obvious substitutions, such as “H0u$e,” are easy to guess.

A strong password should be based on something you can remember but that would be difficult for a hacker to guess. Stay away from well-known phrases, quotes or song lyrics. Start with a sentence such as “I live for boating!” and transform it to “ILv4Btng!” Or string a series of random words together to create a strong password like this: “wizardboWLingchicKeN.”

The more you post about yourself on social networking sites, the easier it might be for someone to use that information to access your accounts, steal your identity and more. Maximizing your privacy settings on social networking sites can also help protect your personal information.

Along with generating strong passwords for each account, use multifactor security that requires more than one method of verifying your identity, especially with accounts that involve financial transactions. Also, enable biometrics like fingerprint sign-on, or retina or facial recognition where available.

Following these tips can help you create stronger passwords that are tough for hackers to break—and help protect your identity.

No matter how strong a password may be, it is still at risk of being hacked. With two-factor authentication, a second level of security is added to strengthen your defenses against a breach.