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Are you using simple passwords such as password, abc123, or qwerty? Do you write your passwords on a Post-It note you stick to your computer screen? Have you been using the same password on multiple accounts? Or do you create passwords that are unique and strong for each of your online accounts?
The recently discovered Heartbleed Internet bug put a bright spotlight onto passwords. The bug caused most websites, even the most secure ones, to be vulnerable to hackers, potentially exposing user names and passwords for your online accounts. No matter how secure your passwords were, you need to change them for accounts that were affected by Heartbleed.
See, Heartbleed – The Internet Security Flaw That Should Command Your Attention Now
In this aftermath of Heartbleed, you may be very busy resetting your passwords for nearly all of your accounts. As you choose your new passwords, be sure to consider the factors to make a password strong. No sense in going to the trouble of changing your password to one that’s easy to guess.
Do you wish you used more secure passwords but aren’t sure how to create them? Choosing a secure password can be challenging. You want the password to be strong, but you don’t want to have one that’s impossible to type in or to remember. Many people give up and resort to choosing easy passwords or use the same one for every online account.
See, SmartPlanet, Top 10 most ‘hacked’ passwords: ‘123456,’ ‘ninja’
But creating a strong password may mean the difference between your account being hacked or being safe. The more secure you make your password, the more difficult it will be for hackers to crack it. In the infographic below you can see the massive difference in strength between a password that’s 10 characters vs. a password with 15 characters.
This infographic shows you the value of choosing strong passwords and guides you through the process of creating them. By spending a few minutes learning how to create a strong password you may be making your online accounts much safer and possibly thwarting hackers:
How To Create The Perfect Password [Infographic] by the team at Who Is Hosting This
Note that no password is ever 100% secure. Passwords can be discovered, hijacked, copied and stolen. But the stronger you make your password, the harder you make it for hackers to crack them.
See, A True and Terrifying Tale of Digital Disaster (and How to Avoid It Happening to You)
Be sure to choose a different password for each account you own. You don’t want a hacker who has cracked one of your passwords to be able to access multiple accounts. Believe me, hackers are working hard to crack your passwords so don’t make it easy for them.
See, Ars Technica,
How the Bible and YouTube are fueling the next frontier of password cracking
Poll
How do you choose your passwords? Do you use a password generator? Do you write down your passwords on paper? Do you have a password service, such as LastPass or 1Password? Do you use the same password for multiple accounts?
Vote in today’s Wonder of Tech of Tech poll and let us know how you choose passwords:
Your Thoughts
Do you have any advice for choosing a strong password? How do you manage your passwords? Have you ever had your password stolen? Let us know in the Comments section below!
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Lock photo (edited) by Mark Fischer
Hi Carolyn,
That was a nice infographic post 🙂
Yes, you need to be very secure about your accounts, especially after the attacks recently and it’s better to be careful beforehand than to regret later. Honestly speaking, I’ve heard about password service like LastPass or 1Password but never tried them out wondering how safe are they. I know perhaps they must be safe that’s why so many people use them, but what if they can get to know about your accounts and were hacked one day themselves.
I prefer putting them all down on a notepad I have on my desktop, which I can change as and when I like and I usually shuffle a few of the ones I have between my various accounts so it’s not tough to forget. Yes, I do us all combinations and characters to make it a strong one too.
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, That’s great that you use strong passwords. You’re not alone, there are those who shy away from password services because they are reluctant to have all of their passwords all in one place. But LastPass proved very handy during Heartbleed, alerting its users which websites were compromised by Heartbleed.
Thanks for your good wishes, Harleena. I wish you a good week ahead too!
A programmer friend was emphasizing point 2, make them long! Sigh. Can’t wait until (?) they come up with a better system. I use LastPass, but I don’t find it intuitive, either.
Great point, Leora. Yes, Apple uses a fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5s, but even that caused controversy. A failsafe way to identify Internet users would be a very helpful invention. It would be great never to have to worry about passwords ever again!
Your friend is right, for every character you add to your password, you make a hacker’s job tougher.
I have different strategies for different types of sites. Some sites I do not really care if I would loose my password or if someone would get hold of it, on those I use a very simple password (but still not words or similar). For more important things like my email, paypal and banks I use longer and more difficult passwords.
If I would use the more difficult passwords on all different sites there would be no way for me to remember them 🙂
You’re right, Johan, not all sites require the same level of security. Banking and financial websites should have very strong passwords. But hackers can cause problems on other sites such as email accounts and social media sites so make sure you are using secure passwords on those too.
Hey Carolyn,
I use to use an excel spreadsheet to keep all my passwords but over time that got so full and so hard to keep up with that I changed to LastPass and I LOVE that program.
I think I go with 16 to 20 characters long and they include everything that the keyboard will let me use. Not any password on any of the sites are the same and I change them often because they’re easy to keep up with now.
Great infographic and I know that using simple passwords is easy on you but just remember that you’re just an accident waiting to happen when hackers want your stuff.
Great share!
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Great analogy. You’re right, using a simple password is like heading into a bad neighborhood at night with an empty tank of gas. Not smart, right?
It’s great to hear you’re a fan of LastPass, Adrienne. I haven’t yet used a password service yet but after Heartbleed, I’m leaning towards using one.
Hi Carolyn,
We all live in the digital world where we do almost everything online so having strong password is necessary. I used to keep simple passwords which you already mentioned in the infographic but when I first heard about hackers can easily breach our easy passwords, I started using strong passwords with the combination of alphabets, numbers, and special characters.
Hi Pankaj, You are very wise to use strong passwords, Pankaj. Simple passwords give hackers an advantage when they are trying to break into your accounts.
My passwords are so strong I couldn’t tell you what they are even if you threatened my life; and I’m serious. Previously, I was pretty lax using combo’s of Lakeland or Lanier but probably very easy to crack. When someone told me recently they were getting some strange e-mails from me on my gmail account I knew it was time to tighten it up.
Don’t tell anyone, but I do have them written down because I have at least 60 ‘accounts’ that need a password and there is no way I can remember them.
I do have a Mustbin app so one of these days when I feel ambitious maybe I will load them all in there.
So maybe I get a C+ for being half way there, huh?
Hi Bill, Yes, Mustbin is a very useful tool for storing your passwords. I also use Mustbin to store mine because it’s impossible to remember so many strong passwords for all of my accounts.
You’re not alone. Getting hacked is the reason most people start to take passwords seriously!
The problem these days is that almost every site on the internet these days requires a password. That’s why a lot of people use the same password, so that they only have one to remember.
Another problem is that if your computer has been compromised hackers can find out what your passwords are by monitoring your keystrokes. That’s why I have a program that not only devises great passwords for me, records them so they are easy to retrieve it also allows me to copy and paste them thereby bypassing any keystrokes.
Hi Peter, Good point. Sometimes staying logged in can help you avoid hackers who may be tracking you when you type in your user names and passwords.
What software program are you using to manage your passwords, Peter? Do you recommend it?
Thanks for sharing your insights with us, Peter!
Hey Carolyn,
Great tips on creating strong password in this infographic.
While I think my passwords are not weak, my best ways to login to accounts online is through social media buttons. Sometimes, I feel so bored to field those login forms. I just wish there should be a way to Click on some Facebook, Twitter or Google button to open my session.
I hope we one day come to a point where with a single account, you can unlock access to a whole lot of systems. Well, that too may have it downsides 😉
Hi Enstine, Good point, we can often connect our social media accounts instead of creating user names and passwords for some websites. The danger is that every time we grant permission to access our social media accounts we are opening ourselves up to potential hacking.
If you’re active on a site then linking your social media account may be worth the risk, but if you’ve given permission to access your social media accounts to sites you’re no longer using, you should cancel those permissions.
Clean Up Your Permissions! gives you a handy link to check and cancel your permissions for most social media sites. You can regularly check your permissions and make sure you’re only allowing access to sites you’re actively using.
You’re right, Enstine, it would be very handy to have a single user account. But that does give one company a lot of information about you, so if that account were hacked, your online identity would be 100% compromised. I agree with you, passwords are challenging and an efficient replacement would be a welcome innovation!
Hello,
Useful infographics and I just bookmarked to for later check. Strong passwords are really important to secure our accounts from hackers or anyone. I’m using password manger to secure passwords which can take care of each and every password.
Thanks
Hi Samir, That’s great you’re using a password manager to keep track of your strong passwords and to keep hackers at bay!
Great infographic post..
You can also use password locker which let you save, retrieve and manage your all user accounts and passwords. But it is not helpful in all conditions sometimes we use another person PC or may be we forget the password of our locker..So keeping a single strong password for all account is the best way.
Nice tips for making strong password..
Hi Surajjagoori, Thanks for your kind words but I have to respectfully disagree with you about using a single password for multiple accounts. That strategy means that a hacker who cracks your password has access to all of your accounts. You’re right, it’s difficult to keep track of all of your passwords, especially strong ones, but we have to work diligently to keep hackers away!
I think there is no password that can be considered safe. The spies are loose and can even discover passwords strongholds of companies we imagine to be in possession of strong security schemes on their computers. For n’s mortal remains hope not to be the next victim of these smart.
Hi Harry, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! You’re absolutely right. No password is 100% safe. But so long as we’re going to have Internet accounts we need to try our best to keep hackers at bay. The suggestions in the infographic help us make the job of hackers much tougher so maybe they will move on to try someone else’s account.
I used to have almost the same passwords in all of my accounts. But after my facebook got hacked, I become more careful with my passwords and I am now using a password manager.
Hi Jeremy, Excellent point. Sometimes what convinces us to strengthen our passwords is getting hacked. I’m glad you’re now using a password manager to make it tougher on hackers!
Hi Carolyn ,
That’s a nice infographic on creating strong passwords 🙂
Generating and using a strong password is only your first line of defense against hackers.
I usually connect my social networks with most of the sites instead of filling up the form and stuff like that. Quite boring 😀
Still, I think I always set up a strong password for all the important online sites but I think I have to change them because the paraphrase described in the infographic is much more secured and easy to remember.
Apart from that , using Symbols found on the keyboard like ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ – + = { } [ ] \ | : etc along with spaces can really help in creating strong passwords.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful infographic. Tweeted ! 🙂
Keep writing, I’ll be around 🙂
Hi Sourav, Sounds as if you make good use of strong passwords. Yes, connecting your social media accounts often means you can bypass creating new usernames and passwords for each website you visit. Just be sure to clean up your permissions later if you’re no longer using that site. A
I’m glad you use symbols in your passwords, though many sites don’t allow for spaces in passwords.
I hope the hackers stay away from your accounts, Sourav!
Hi Carolyn,
I started using 1Password right after my gmail account was hacked. I’ll never go with the “easy” passwords again. It was terrible to see my friends receiving spam mails from me. I didn’t get hurt that bad, but I started to imagine what else could happen. All my passwords are very strong, and hopefully that will keep me safe.
– Jens
Hi Jens, Yes, even the strongest passwords can be hacked, if they’re entered over an unsecured Wi-Fi network. But you’re wise to use 1Password instead of weak passwords to make your accounts secure against hackers. :-bd
I always use unique passwords for each account, I usually combine letters, numbers, and symbols. I save almost all of the passwords on notepad 🙂
Hi Andy, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you’re using strong passwords and managing them well. I hope all hackers stay away from your accounts!
Hi Carolyn,
Great topic for discussion!
This topic is very helpful especially because of the Heartbleed happened recently.
I choose passwords with a simple thought. I am using the password by using specific words in my area. Well, since the internet is filled by many people from different countries, I think, use the special language of a particular region is a very good idea 🙂
Thanks for sharing this informative article , Carolyn.
Nice share, indeed!
Nanda
Hi Nanda, Yes, good idea. You could use place names near where you live or other words that have meaning to you but aren’t found in the English language. The more we can do to stump the hackers the better! :-bd
Hi Carolyn,
So nice infographic article 🙂
My all accounts are safe with strong passwords. But I always afraid for WordPress site password even I am using strong password for this too.
Please give me advice to make WordPress website more safe.
~Diana
Hi Diana, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you enjoyed this infographic and that you’re using strong passwords for your Internet accounts.
For your blog, I recommend WordFence security plugin that can help protect your blog and let you know when hackers are trying to log in. You’re right, even with a very strong password, you still need extra protection for your blog!
Hi Carolyn,
One more tip would be is to use words from different language. Since hackers tends to use english words first. Though they would brute force but Facebook and Google has a way to prevent it and a blogger have plugins to stop it.
Excellent suggestions, Anurag. If you were fluent in an uncommon language, such as Flemish, you could use words you were familiar with but most of the rest of the world was not.
Hey Carolyn,
Nice post and Yes, Security is very major issue these days and we have to use strong passwords so that no one can easily hack our profile. Using special character really helps in increasing the strength of password. Thanks for sharing these tips with us.
Hi Sudipto, You’re right, strong passwords give our accounts greater security and using special characters can make our passwords stronger.