How safe is your password?
The first step in protecting your online privacy is creating a safe password – i.e. one that a computer program or persistent individual won’t easily be able to guess in a short period of time. To help you choose a secure password, we’ve created a feature that lets you know visually how safe your password is as soon as you create it.
Tips for creating a secure password:
Make it lengthy. Your passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or longer is ideal.
Include punctuation marks and/or numbers.
Mix capital and lowercase letters.
Include similar looking substitutions, such as the number eight for the letter ‘B’ or ‘$’ for the letter ‘S’.
Create a unique acronym.
Things to avoid:
Do not use a password that listed as an example of how to pick a good password.
Do not use a password that contains personal information (name, society number, birth date, etc.)
Do not use sequential numbers (12345) and repeated characters (aabb66) or keyboard patterns (asdfg).
Do not make your password all numbers, uppercase letters or lowercase letters.
Do not use words or acronyms that can be found in a dictionary.
Do not using online storage.(If malicious users find these passwords stored online or on a networked computer, they have access to all your information.)
Include phonetic replacements, such as ‘Luv U’ for ‘Love you’.
Tips for keeping your password secure:
Never tell your password to anyone especially children (this includes significant others, colleague, roommates, parrots, etc.).
Never write your password down.
Never provide your password over e-mail or based on an e-mail request.
Periodically test your current password and change it to a new one.
Do not type passwords on computers that you do not control.
