Q. I read somewhere that I should change my passwords every month to keep people out. That seems a little extreme, doesn't it? How often should I really change the passwords to my accounts? Do you have any tips on how to create new strong passwords that I won't forget?
-Jeremy, from Loveland, CO, listens to my national radio show on KFKA 1310 AM.
A. If you keep up with my Breaking News Page, Jeremy, you'll know how important changing your password is. Hackers and scammers cook up new ways to break into your account every day. You need to stay ahead of them.
However, I agree that changing your passwords every month seems excessive. It's hard to remember a password that changes that often. I think changing it two or three times a year, or if you suspect it's been broken, is a good balance of security and convenience.
As for creating strong passwords, I have a little trick that is safe and easy to use. Plus, the passwords are easy to remember.
When most people want a memorable password, they make it too simple. The most common passwords are 123abc, 12345, password, a pet's name or your last name. Some people use a single word like "monkey," "Jesus" or "baseball."
Passwords like these make a hacker's job easy. Hackers have programs that can try hundreds of thousands of common passwords and dictionary word combinations in less than a second.
Hackers love it when you make short passwords, too. The longer a password is, the harder it is to crack. You want your password to be at least eight characters, if not more.
I say characters because a good password should have numbers and symbols in addition to letters. That increases the possible character combinations a hacker has to try. More characters plus more possibilities per character equals a harder to crack password.
The strongest password would actually be a string of random characters. Unfortunately, something like "Tl|_|,BwwB2R" isn't easy to remember. Or is it? Let me show you how I came up with it.
Start by thinking up a random sentence. You can use a catch phrase, quote or even a song lyric. I chose a lyric from one of my favorite songs: "Tramps like us, baby we were born to run."
I took the first character from each word to get "tlu,bwwbtr". Not bad, but it could be better. So, I added some symbols in place of similar letters. U becomes |_|, the "to" from the original lyric becomes 2. Then, I capitalized a few of the letters to make a strong password that I can easily remember: "Tl|_|,BwwB2R".
Bonus tip: Setting up consistent symbol replacement and capitalization rules for all your passwords helps keep things from becoming too complex.
However, hackers sometimes hack companies to steal thousands of passwords at once. Your information could be stolen in a phishing scam, too. In these situations, it doesn't really matter how strong your password is.
Once a hacker has these, they might try to find your other accounts. That's why I always recommend a unique password for every account. That doesn't mean you have to think up a new phrase, though.
You can tweak the same password for multiple accounts. For Facebook, you could make it "Tl|_|$,BwwB2RFB." Amazon can be "AmzTl|_|$,BwwB2R."
A strong password is your first line of defense against hackers and scams. Here are three more resources that can help you fight them off.
- One wrong click in an email or a website could end in a nasty virus. Protect your computer with free security software.
- You need a strong security question to back up your hard-to-crack password. Beef up your account's security question.
- A stolen laptop could give a thief access to your private accounts. Track down your stolen laptop with this free program.
