In addition to the previous post I made, I wanted to write about what to avoid completely when creating a password. I wanted to answer the question: What makes a bad password?
Here’s your answer in 9 things to avoid when creating a password:
1. The Default Password.
Many programs and services will give you an assigned default password such as password or user or something simple. Don’t use this as your password.
2. Here is a list of the 10 most common passwords:
god, love, money, lust, secret, sex, private, qwerty, snoopy, and password.
3. Double the word.
For example, puppypuppy shouldn’t be used.
4. Funny, jargon words or acronyms.
Don’t use things like wassup, lol, rofl, foobar or wicked.
5. Insults/Obscene words.
Don’t use passwords like biteme or yousuck and you can figure out the obscene words for yourself.
6. Keyboard sequences.
asdfg isn’t a good password.
7. Reversals.
Whether groups of letters are reversed or each one is reversed, don’t use any reversals. (i.e. wordpass, samoht)
8. Personal Information.
This includes your name, initials, your address, birthday, pets, maiden names, family/friend’s info, favorites, etc.
9. Dictionary and Foreign Language words.
If you can find the word easily in a dictionary or translator, chances are it’s not a very good password.
If you don’t do any of the following, you have a pretty safe password. Remember that no password is uncrackable, so when in doubt, change your password often.
And for a final question, what’s the worst password?
Answer: The one you’ve forgotten.
When this happens, make sure to have a password recovery tool. If you don’t have one, click here!