Password Suggestions
What makes a good password?
Good passwords are extremely difficult (if not impossible) to guess. The best
passwords:
- Have seven or more characters
- Look like gibberish to others
- Are a mixture of letters, digits, and special characters
- Are not tempting to write down
- Can be typed quickly (making it difficult for those nearby to recognize your keystrokes)
What to Try
Developing a strong password isn’t difficult, but can sometimes feel like a
challenge. Here are a few tips & tricks:
- Combine silly words with a special character or number, for example waz%gop or Ruxi7da
- Combine two words and rearrange the letters, for example SlogRudh (gold rush), GlodTeg (leg godt), oFegDule (Del Fuego). Toss in a number or special character for good measure, for example LushGrod94 (gold rush ‘49) or Lush$Grod
- In the style of an acronym, make up a phrase you can remember easily, yet when reduced looks like complete gibberish. For example:
o2mwtH = only 2 more weeks ‘til Halloween
gaspto4A = got a stupid parking ticket on 4th Avenue
Cwmua6Te = Christopher wakes me up at 6 o’clock, Too early
hmlbfimc? = how many lego buckets fit in my car?
mLfhTaJ = many LEGO fans hate Timmy and Jar-Jar
- Try to include at least one character from each of the following groups:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz (lowercase letters)
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ (uppercase letters)
0123456789 (numeric digits)
@#$%&()[]{}<>~^`’”.,:;!?+-*/\=_| (special characters)
What to Avoid
Try to avoid predictable sequences that other people or password-cracking programs might guess. For example:
- Dictionary words or names (forward or backward, in any language)
- Upside-down letter inversions (317537 for LESLIE, 0937 for LEGO, etc.)
- Trite letter substitutions (pa55w0rd, Micro$oft, $#!+, etc.)
- Repeats or palindromes (zzzzz, lleeggoo, borabora, xivix, etc.)
- Ascending or descending sequences (abcdefg, vutsrqp, etc.)
- Numeric or arithmetic sequences (555-1212, 1x2x3, 1/23/45, etc.)
- Dragging your finger across the keyboard (qwerty, 1qaz, !@#$%, etc.)
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