How to Create Strong Passwords?

Passwords — the first line of defence.

Since the internet is a fundamentally unprotected realm, it is your responsibility to embrace safeguards to maintain your privacy. In an increasingly connected world, criminals can easily invade, steal or misuse your valuable information.

A strong password is a crucial first line of defence against cyber intruders and imposters. Having a strong password helps mitigate or at least make it very difficult for cyber criminals to gain access to your data by using guessing and cracking techniques.

Although protecting your password is the next thing to do, not many of us know how to design a complex password in an easy way. So, we share a few ways you can do this.

Here are 10 ways you can create a strong password:

1. Ensure each new password is unique and avoid reusing your password for multiple sites/applications.
2. Use a password that is at least 8-14 characters long using a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers.
   Insert special characters to make your password stronger, e.g. ‘Go!1TeaM’.
3. Avoid consecutive key combinations such as ‘qwert’, ‘Poiuy’, ‘asdzxc’, ‘qazwsx’ or ‘12345’. This type of password runs the risk of being easily guessed, especially in a public setting.
4. Use a combination of unrelated words, to create a password that is easy to remember yet secure, e.g. your first pet name + favourite number + favourite color = ‘lucY16!bLuE’.
5. Avoid using commonly used words such as ‘password’, ‘guest’, ‘user’, ‘admin, ‘root’, ‘name’ in your password.
6. Create a password made up of the first letter of every word of a sentence.
   Here is an example: ‘March 10th I am going on vacation!’
   From this we get ‘M10thIaGoV!’.
7. Do not use details such as your ID or login name, date of birth, phone number, names of family members or other easily obtainable information from social media.
8. Personal goals can be a source of very strong passwords.
   Here is an example: ‘I want to be CISA certified by November 15th.’
   With this, you get ‘iWtbCcbN15th’. Great reason to start having goals then.