We are constantly hearing about data breaches and stolen passwords. Therefore, we are constantly having to create new, stronger passwords and more often.  Every website or software product we use requires a strong password and the minute you set it up you know you won’t remember it. You can’t (or shouldn’t) write it down, and if you use a laptop don’t let your browser save your password or someone could get access to it. It can be a huge hassle coming up with secure passwords that you can remember.

A few factors to remember when creating passwords

Make it long – 15 characters or more 

Mix it up – Using a mix of characters (upper and lower), numbers, and symbols

Avoid common substitutions – Everyone knows to try a 0 in place of an o like in Passw0rd.

Avoid memorable keyboard paths – qwerty is an example of a keyboard path

February 1^st was #ChangeYourPassword Day and I created this quick tip video:

The example in the video really needs a few more characters but you get what I’m saying.

I use the free version of LastPass to store my passwords and highly recommend it. It makes keeping up with the many passwords I use daily so much easier. I have a 17-character password to my LastPass account that I can easily remember because of the little trick in my video. With LastPass that is the only password I need to remember because it remembers all the rest!