{"id":28,"date":"2006-10-18T10:08:18","date_gmt":"2006-10-18T10:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wabash.edu\/technotes\/2006\/10\/18\/creating-strong-passwords\/"},"modified":"2006-10-18T10:08:18","modified_gmt":"2006-10-18T10:08:18","slug":"creating-strong-passwords","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/technotes\/2006\/10\/18\/creating-strong-passwords\/","title":{"rendered":"Creating Strong Passwords"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Using strong passwords is a key component of computer security. Passwords are the keys that provide access to information stored on our computers and online accounts, and are often the only barrier between that information and would-be thieves.<\/p>\n

One strategy for creating a strong password that is easy to remember is to think up a sentence or phrase, and base your password on that. The phrase could be a line from a song or book, a quote, or anything that\u2019s easy to remember. Make it long \u2013 at least eight words. For example:<\/p>\n

     From the hills of Maine to the western plain<\/p>\n

Take the first letter of each word to form your password:<\/p>\n

     fthomttwp<\/p>\n

You can make the password even more secure by using a whole word or two from your phrase, mixing upper and lowercase letters, and substituting or adding letters and symbols. In our example, we could capitalize the M in Maine, use the number 2 in place of the word \u201cto\u201d, use \u201cthe\u201d instead of just t, and replace the h with a hash mark #, to get:<\/p>\n

     ft#oM2thewp<\/p>\n

Such a password is many times more difficult to guess or hack than a short word, but is still easy to remember.<\/p>\n

Below are some additional tips for creating good passwords.<\/p>\n

Do:<\/b><\/p>\n