Password protect

Think your online passwords are strong enough to thwart hackers? Maybe not! The latest password-cracking programs can try millions of variations in under an hour until they hit the right one. How can we protect password? While having different online passwords for every account and using a variety of letters, numbers and symbols can help with your password protection, try these tricks to block anyone from guessing your online passwords:

Password protection: Don’t make it one word!

If your online password is a single word or name, like “Baseball” or “Helen.” It’s time to change it. Hacking programs go through every single word in the dictionary for virtually any language as well as names for men, women and even pets!

Password protection: Make it long!

Online passwords that are five characters long can be cracked in seconds. Compare that to one with 10 characters that would take about 50 years to figure out! That’s because every character you add to your online passwords means the password-guessing computer has to go through millions more combos to find the right password. For the most password protection, aim for one with 16 characters, which would take thousands of years to guess!

Password protection: Create the safest online passwords of all!

The most secure password isn’t a complex jumble, like “AB/*fr&Sup117.”That’s because the harder your online passwords is to remember, the more likely you are to keep a copy of it someplace easily accessible where anyone can find it. Instead, put together three to five unrelated words – such  as “store”, “chair” and “horse” – capitalize the first letter of each, then add a number or symbol that’s special to you (like your graduation year), so it looks like “StoreChairHourse2003.” And your online passwords will have all the safety and protection while also being easy to recall!