Be it for your mail, for your social networking website account, or for you company user account - a password is something we guard with our lives! Here are some tips on how to create a secure password - and keep nosy people out of your life!
You must definitely have come across at least one person in your life who wants to know everything about everybody - who is dating who, who broke up with who, who got promoted, who is going to be sacked, and who is getting a divorce. Such people are all over the world, and sooner or later one comes across them and has to face them. Worse is the case when such people are your superiors! Though at times we wish our whole life could have a password, we know that is not possible. However what we can do is create an absolutely unique and secure password for things that CAN be protected with passwords - such as your office user accounts, special files on your computer, your mailing account, your Facebook account and scores of other things...
How to Create a Secure Password
1. Be Original
Your password is something that has to be absolutely original. Try to come up with something new altogether. DO NOT pick ideas from your friends, or from novels, books or movies and do not choose any of the commonly used passwords. I once had a friend who, inspired by Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, used the Fibonacci number as a password for one of his mail accounts - I do not even want to attempt to explain the chaos and mayhem that followed! Your password has to be something that cannot be guessed easily, that cannot be deciphered even by the most clever people!
2. Be Creative
Never follow a set pattern or trend while creating different passwords for different accounts - otherwise someone who cracks one of the passwords (and thence the trend), will be able to crack them all! Always experiment with different types of passwords - one password could be only numbers, another could be only alphabets, another could be mixed characters, and you could even go totally random on one of the passwords! (Only don't make it too random for you to remember it yourself!)
3. Be Discrete
Absolutely DO NOT share your password with anyone; not your best friend, not your companion, not your parents, NO ONE! DO NOT write down your passwords anywhere; and if you absolutely have to, NEVER write them down in the same diary/book or keep them all together in the same place! If someone comes to you for suggestions to create a new password, don't give them your own idea/the idea you used to create your own password! They may be just bluffing, wanting to get you talking so they can pick up clues about what your password could be! Be discrete, and just keep them guessing!
4. Mix-n-Match
Try to use words from different languages in your password; that way no one can really guess what the word could be! Also do not just stick to one word from one language - let your password be a mix of words or phrases from different languages. The more obscure/weird your password, the more secure it is! Again here, go for a language that is less 'popular' - DO NOT go for Spanish, French, German, Russian words. And DO NOT go for common phrases like 'I Love You', 'Have A Good Day', 'Goodbye' and the like.
5. Change is the Only Constant
Change is the only constant in life - so keep 'em changing! NEVER stick to a single password for a single account. Keep changing your password regularly, but do not follow a pattern of change either! For example, do not change all your passwords on a set date of the month, in a set pattern. Also when I say change, it means 'change' and NOT 'exchange'! Never switch between passwords of different accounts.
Remember three important 'S's while creating a password - Strong, Safe, and Smart! Never let your password be something personally associated with you, the name of your first crush, your first pet, the last company you worked for, your favorite vacation spot, your favorite color. Try to make your password as complex as you can - but not so complex that you can't remember it yourself! Go cryptic!
