WHY STRONG PASSWORDS?

Strong passwords are extremely important to prevent unauthorized access to your electronic accounts and devices. The object when choosing a password is to make it as difficult as possible for a would-be intruder to identify your password, whether by educated guesses or automated attacks.

This leaves a criminal no alternative but a brute-force search, trying every possible combination of letters, numbers, and punctuation. Though intruders have access to machines that can try thousands or millions of possible passwords per second, a very complicated or very long password vastly decreases the chances an intruder will be able to guess yours.

VIDEO: Animated video on Password.

For a password to be strong and hard to break, it should:

• Contain 6 or more characters
• Contain characters from each of the following three groups:

1.     Letters (uppercase and lowercase) A, B, C,...; a, b, c,...

2.     Numerals 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

3.     Symbols (all characters not defined as letters or numerals) ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + - = { } | [ ] \ : " ; ' < > ? , . /

• Have at least one symbol character in the second through sixth positions.
• Be significantly different from prior passwords.

The Risk of Using Weak Passwords

People impersonating you to commit fraud and other crimes, including

Accessing your bank account

Purchasing items online with your money

Impersonating you on social networking and dating sites

Sending emails in your name

Accessing the private information held on your computer.