Password Management

Passwords are everywhere now! Most people need to remember several passwords to different websites and computers. Creating a strong password that is hard to guess is important, especially when it is protecting your personal or financial information. Instructions

1. Step 1

Check the password management rules for the password you are creating. Some sites have very 'strict' rules, which means they limit the minimum and maximum size, or force you to use different characters like uppercase, lowercase, numbers or symbols. Read the rules and make sure you understand them.

1. Step 2

You probably already have a password you use frequently, but the problem with reusing passwords is that if one of them is discovered, everything is lost. Think of a simple word that will be very easy for you to remember, for example 'summer'.

1. Step 3

Now comes the simple trick that will help you create a strong password of almost any length. Use the '@' character. In the internet age we've become familiar with the 'at sign' character, which is used in email addresses and usually pronounced as the word 'at'. Use the '@' sign at the end of the word you came up with in step 2. So now our example is 'summer@'

1. Step 4

Now you just finish the sentence with an easy to remember "domain name". A domain name is the name of a website, like 'google.com'. In this case though, it can be anything you want, even a site that doesn't exist. Pick something that makes sense with your base password, write down the first few things you think of when you think of that word. So in our example, I'd choose 'camp.com' as my password domain.

1. Step 5

Putting it all together, we have 'summer@camp.com'. This is a fifteen character password that uses multiple symbols - this is a STRONG password! It is also very easy to remember. Because we have all become conditioned to remember email addresses with the '@' character, this memory device lets us easily recall our passwords.