4 Tips on Choosing a Safe and Secure Password

Don’t get me wrong; the Internet is a wonderful, wonderful place. There are so many great, unique people that make up this beautiful digital melting pot. However, just like in any diverse city, for every hundred upstanding citizens, there are a few bad apples. These people are up to no good, and unless you take the appropriate precautions, you might just end up being the victim of their malicious shenanigans. So what is your first line of defense against these cyber-outlaws? To effectively ward off attacks, your first priority must be to adequately protect your confidential information. The best way to accomplish this, in theory, would be to not share any confidential information online whatsoever. But the great extent to which the world-wide-web has woven its way into the fabric of our existence renders this option impractical. With this in mind, your first line of defense would by default go to your password.
A strong password is extremely effective at keeping you secure online, but what constitutes a strong password? Here are a four tips to ensure that your information is in a safe that only you are privy to the combination for.

Tip number one: The acronym trick

Think of a phrase that you can remember easily, such as “You Only Live Once on Earth.” Now take the first letter of every word (besides filler words like “on” and “you”), and that will be the base of you password. For instance the above phrase would translate into “yoloe”. Make sure it’s no less then five words though, for maximum security.

Tip number two: Capitalize one of the letters

Take the acronym you chose and capitalize one of the letters. I would recommend one of the middle letters, but capitalizing any letter will add an extra layer of security that will make it a real pain for hackers to crack.

Tip number three: Add a number

Another option in making your password a near unpenetratable fortress is adding a number or two. This will make your password so crazy hard to figure out that even the most determined dirtbags will more than likely throw in the towel. Match point.

Tip number four: Use a character

Adding special characters like $ or # would give you that extra layer of security. It can be any of the character that makes sense to you and you can even add it to your acronym like: “Everyone is a Star Worthy of Living Well and Mighty Once”. This can translate to “e*wlwm1”, star in this case is * and once is the number 1.
There you have it! If you followed these instructions, you can rest easy knowing that your any information that needs a password will be for your eyes only. Code away!


Brendan Sevack is a social enthusiast and a blogger for Wazala.com specializing in social commerce and social media marketing. Studied audio engineering, but soon after realized he prefers to share with words rather than sound.