What’s the Pa$$w0rd?
As much as this is a very simple topic, it is often overlooked by many people and the safety of our documents and accounts should be of the up-most importance- especially in a business. Here is a brief guide to the best password security.
Hackers have files with words that include lists of the below. So try and avoid using them.
- Common Names, these include
- A name of a person (first name or surname)
- Name of a pet
- Name of a place (Glasgow)
- Fictional Character (Garfield or Goofy)
- Product or model name (Vauxhall)
- Your favourite food
- Company name
- Number sequences such as 123
- Just numbers
- Any dates (especially Christmas or New Year)
- Phone numbers
Words that come straight from the dictionary should also be avoided especially with common number sequences following them, e.g. Shelf123.
You should avoid common sequences for example…
- Your initials
- 12345678
- Abcdefg
- Qwerty
- Asdfgh
- Test123
- Abc123
- Pass123
- Desl1234
Any of the above spelt backwards or some letters replaced with number. (e.g. numbers as numb3rs) and anything shorter than 9 characters is also unadvisable.
When creating your password use a combination of numbers, upper case, lower case letters and symbols. Make sure you use 9 or more characters
For example-
Clicky.547rEd
BruM1902-past
7oranGecats
Again you can see that these passwords are not from the dictionary.
The ideal password should resemble gibberish such as gR58£B39. It doesn’t have to hard to remember though, create a regular sentence as an easy way to remember it, for example…
iwiLs.2001ala$
I worked in London City Centre since 2001 and looked after money.
This is very difficult to guess but easy to remember. Of course though the chances of you making an error or mistype become higher, so it’s important to make it something that’s memorable for you.
For some interesting password research:
https://www.ted.com/talks/lorrie_faith_cranor_what_s_wrong_with_your_pa_w0rd?language=en
We are an IT Support, Strategy and Software company based in the North West but supporting SMEs nationwide. To discuss how we could support your business please do not hesitate to get in touch on 01524 581 690, or email [email protected].
