PC World just posted a great article on how to, or not to create your passwords. The full article “Hacking Passwords” by David Coursey is definately worth reading. I wanted to share with you just a small section of their tips.

Imperva provides a list of password best practices, created by NASA to help its users protect their rocket science, they include:

• It should contain at least eight characters
• It should contain a mix of four different types of characters – upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special characters such as !@#$%^&*,;” If there is only one letter or special character, it should not be either the first or last character in the password.
• It should not be a name, a slang word, or any word in the dictionary. It should not include any part of your name or your e-mail address.

Following that advice, of course, means you’ll create a password that will be impossible, unless you try a trick credited to security guru Bruce Schneir: Turn a sentence into a password.

For example, “Now I lay me down to sleep” might become nilmDOWN2s, a 10-character password that won’t be found in any dictionary

Oh and one more tip.. writing down your passwords and taping them to your computer screen… not the best idea…

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