Learn, how to create and use long, complex and strong passwords, without having to remember or type them manually.
Stop using weak passwords.
Passwords, that you can remember and type in manually, are no longer considered secure. This is even the case, if you are using word phrases, that are mixed with birthday or date related numbers. These kind of passwords can be brute forced and hacked in a short amount of time. If you also use the same passwords for different sites, then you are more vulnerable to these kinds of hacker attacks.
The following passwords are examples of weak passwords, that can be hacked with brute force hacker attacks, that are based on dictionaries, leaked passwords and generators. They can also be noticed and remembered by an observant person.
x abcd 1234 test Joshua 20110719 Sales100 MyBestYear-2021 11Wedding07Date19 There is no place like home
Use a password manager.
You want to use long, complex and strong passwords. You want each password to be used only once per site. You want your computer to automatically fill in these passwords for you. This secure practice is accomplished by using a password manager.
A password manager is a password management utility or tool, that maintains a database of your sites, usernames and passwords to automatically fill in your passwords. You can obtain a password manager in the form of free and open source application for your computer, but a password manager does not have to be a piece of software, that runs on your computer. It can also be a database of your own or even a spreadsheet, that you can copy and paste from. In any case it is important, that your passwords are stored on a secure and encrypted file system. There are also professional grade secure and portable password managers.
Modern browsers, such as Firefox, comes with a secure built-in password manager, that can store and automatically fill in your passwords on the websites, you use. This feature should not be confused with cookies, that are used, when you enable, that the website should remember your password for future logins.
Use as long, complex and strong passwords as possible.
If you use a password manager, that fills in your usernames and passwords automatically, then there is no reason, why you should not want to use passwords, that are as long, complex and strong as possible. In order to create strong passwords, you should find out, how long passwords, you are you allowed to use, and, which characters, you are allowed to use. Modern and secure authorization systems will generally allow long, complex and strong passwords.
The passwords below are examples of strong passwords. Note, how they are long and contains a mix of special characters, numbers, lower case letters and upper case letters. These password would be very difficult to hack.
0tN25US6ugH5hKTsTDp337K17+F-TITx
OjbQn+SY8aq8CULRv7FcYo5JGY9wHu7S
VHmHtSZXXDBA+9HBg4o5LTptPEtqh-5G
8zLeyfh0QDAFpSDq2NYA6g8cebBLpaB+
bjNCr9teAm9k+kP-NbgEL5wnc0Fy4ts5
9m4o4q-gbcQi6byTCChjRqLzznrvD6XB
R30AICsSWkZxs+2LGriBHMDAZbKs+8x3
N8+GRyYBSWlpMwWWr3-y78EUHsbE016w
zfEVQybX-XF7XOLv1lEB-1R+iP8u8WcO
rbVlap0YYnf7ATR9FavmuOp-9-hPSeo8
Use a password generator.
You should not try to create a long, complex and strong password yourself. This is best done by using a password, that was generated by a password generator. This is a piece of software, that uses a random number generator to create a strong mix of special characters, numbers, lower case letters and upper case letters to generate a strong and unique password for you.
I recommend using my password generator. You might already have a password generator, that is built into your password manager, but do make sure, that the passwords, that are generated, are strong enough.
Use other authorization methods than passwords.
If the system, that you will be logging into or using, supports other and more secure authorization methods, then you might stop using passwords at all. An example of this is SSH keys, where you have your private key and the server has your public key, which is enough to provide a fast, easy and secure authorization method. This can even be combined with other authorization methods for added security. SSH keys are often used when accessing SSH and SFTP servers.