As the first line of defense against unauthorized access to your data, a strong password helps securing your account. A weak password is easy to guess or break by hackers with the help of computers. These obvious passwords cannot secure accounts from malicious breakers who cause loss to our digital, or even real properties. We cannot underestimate the importance of a strong password, so how exactly can we set a strong-enough password? Here are some tips to help you creating a robust one.

#1 Make your password at least 8-character long and alphanumeric

The longer your password is, the more combinations it has, and the more difficult it can be figured out. Furthermore, including both upper and lower case letters, numbers, symbols and spaces can make your password more complex. For example, you can substitute letter o with number 0, s with a $, 1 with L, and also include capital letters and other symbols. Hence, instead of choosing ‘stongpassword’, ‘Str0ng+Pa$$word!’ will be a much better choice.

#2 Do not only use one password for all accounts

Reusing one same password in different sites is risky. If someone gets your password for one account, that person may break into your accounts in other sites, like e-mail or even online banking accounts, stealing personal information and money.

#3 Exclude personal information and common words

Do not use easy-to-guess personal information such as your user or real name, pet name, and birthday. Passwords like Mary0526 or John19930101 are easily breakable. Besides, do not pick dictionary words. There is software created to guess words in the dictionary, which may be exploited by criminals to crack user passwords.

In addition, avoid common words include keywords pattern like ‘qazwsx’ and ‘QWERTY!@#$%^’, phrases like ‘pwforfb’ or ‘logintogmail’, and sequential words like ‘abcd1234’. These password options make your accounts easier to break into.

After creating a unique password, you should also pay attention to how you keep it. Study has shown that many people tend to write down their password and stick it to the monitor. If you must write it down, hide it in a place where no one can find and do not label it as ‘my password’. Also, a customized password-creating rule can help make them more memorable. For instance, you can create specific phrase such as ‘Facebook is my favorite social network website!’ and take the initial of each word as the base of password: “fbimfsnw”. Then, based on the aforementioned rule, change this acronym into ‘F6 imf$nw!’.

You can further enable a 2-Step Verification, which is supported by Facebook, Apple, Google and many other online service providers. This feature offers an extra layer of protection by requiring users to enter a verification code sent to the mobile after entering their password. In addition, 360 Total Security protects you from keylogger, a malware that records each keystroke you make. Adopting both powerful antivirus and strong password approach can keep your valuable personal data secure from hackers and identity thefts.