How a password generator can help you create a strong password

Each day, our lives become more inseparable from the internet; we email instead of call, we stay in touch with social media, we shop online, bank online, etc. And each of our online accounts requires a password. We all know that choosing a strong password is important for internet security, but nonetheless many of us opt for weak passwords simply because they are easier to remember and keep track of. While it is inconvenient to create very strong passwords, the potential fallout from having your accounts hacked will be much more inconvenient. Don’t worry; after reading this article, you’ll be a pro when it comes to knowing whether a password is strong, and we’ll give you a handy secure password generator to take some of the guesswork out of creating a strong password.

Here are the top cyber security factors to make a strong password and accessing your accounts:

Each password should be unique

This takes extra work on your part, for sure. But imagine what would happen if a hacker cracked just one of your passwords—a password that you use to access several different accounts. The hacker would now be free to sign in to any of the accounts using that password. Don’t make a hacker’s job any easier!

No names, please

Don’t use your name, first, last or middle, as your password. The three passwords that a hacker will try first is, “password”, “123456” and different combinations of your name. Same goes for the names of family members, pets, friends, etc. A lot of this information is easy for hackers to find and they won’t hesitate to use it against you.

Change is good

Make sure your password can be changed, if need be. Fingerprints and retinal scans seem like ideal passwords, except they can be replicated with the right technology, and they can’t be changed. You can create unique, strong easily changeable passwords with our passwords generator.

Clean out your browsers

Turn off automatic passwords, auto login, and password storage on your web browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, etc.) Any password stored in this way can be hacked.

How secure is my password?

There are several password strength meters available online to check the strength of your passwords (make sure the site has https before the web address, not http. Remember, “s” is for “secure”). One slightly different take that I like tells you the time it would take for different speed hacking programs to crack your password. It’s useful information to have, but take it with a grain of salt and make sure to read the note if you use this tool. These are great if you want to confirm the strength of passwords you got from our secure password generator.

To change, or not to change?

The standard recommendation is to change your passwords every 8-12 weeks. If you’re using a good random password generator to create strong passwords all the time, and storing them safely (see #13), then changing passwords regularly is a good security measure. If, however, changing passwords often will just make you go back to weaker, easy to remember passwords, like your pet’s name, don’t bother. It’s better to have a really strong password, and keep it forever, than to have a new weak password every 3 months.