7 Tricks For Tough Computer Passwords

You have to use a password for everything on your computer – your email account, your social profiles, your shopping sites, and so much more. You could make one super-easy password for everything, but that will give people a greater chance of hacking into your accounts. Assuming you don’t want that, I have come up with seven tricks for tough computer passwords. Read on and enjoy.

1. Sir Mix-A-Lot: Don’t just make your password all letters or all numbers. Throw in letters, numbers, and at least one special character to make the password complex. You can use your initials, your birthday, and an exclamation mark, and your password would be way more difficult than “hrsionsjfnsurus.”
2. R@nD0mn3s$: Try not to form any real words because they are easy to figure out. Same with chains of letters – keep them random, not consecutive. If you are going to use real words, put numbers in place of certain letters. “Fresh” turns to “fr3$h”, or something along those lines.
3. Size Matters: The longer your password is, the harder it is for someone to break. Make your passwords at least eight characters long, just to be on the safe side.
4. Captain Not-So-Obvious: Don’t pick a password that is really to figure out, like the birthday I mentioned above. I just put that as an example of a combination you could use. Think about something off-the-wall to use as your inspiration, and hopefully you’ll catch the hackers off guard.
5. Strength in Numbers: Use differentpasswords for different sites, just in case someone figures out one of them. If you think you’ll have a hard time remembering them all, use a program like LastPass to store all of the information for you.
6. Write sdrawkcaB: If you think you have to put a word in your password to remember it, at least write it backwards. Then it looks like a random set of letters, not a word someone can easily think up.
7. Trick or Treat: You can make passwords with letters that are right next to letters you can remember. For instance, the word “password” turns to “0qww24e” if I use the letters up and left on the keyboard. Try some different combinations until you find something you like.

Follow the tips above the next time you go to create a password, and it should be virtually indestructible. As long as you find a way to remember whatever you create, you should be good to go.

About the Author: Porsche Cromwell is the mastermind behind ComputerPanda.com, a site full of computer help tips and tutorials for novice users. She loves helping people understand this intriguingly intricate device as much as possible.