Strong and Complex - Effective Passwords to Avoid Being Preyed

Safer online transactions require that you create strong passwords. These are pass codes that aims to protect your computer systems, information or account from unauthorized use and fraud.

You should never discount the password's capacity to safeguard your information. Of course, if you want to be armed, you also need to create strong passwords. You have to remember that there are only two keys to a stronger password: length and complexity. These are obviously self explanatory. If you want to create a strong password, then you need to create long passwords that are also complicated. By definition, complicated passwords mean that you not only use letters but you also need to use numbers, punctuations, and symbols.

Here are some tips that will help you get started in creating complex, longer and safer passwords.

1. Whenever possible, use at least a password that has at least fourteen characters or more. While most sites would require that you only create passwords with a minimum of six letters, you are always allowed to have longer passwords.

2. Use the entire keyboard in creating your password. Don't focus on only one part of the keyboard. Do not use letters only. Whenever possible, use numbers and symbols as well.

3. Easy to remember, hard to guess. This is probably the trickiest part in creating passwords especially if you register to multiple sites. Let's face it: not all of us have a very good memory. But this does not suggest that we have to write down our passwords so that we will never forget those. You have to remember that once your account details are written, it is more likely to be stolen and used for fraud than identities that are remembered by their users.

To create passwords that are easy to guess, follow these suggestions:

• Think of your favourite quote that has at least a total of ten words that is meaningful to you. For instance, let's use "MY HUSBAND IS RYAN AND WE WERE MARRIED AT SAINT LAURENCE" (11 words total).
• Extract the first letter of each word in the sentence, so your password will now be "MHIRAWWMASL."
• Make your password more complex by using a combination of upper case and lower case letters. You can upper case and lower case letters alternately, "mhiRaWwMaSl" or half of the letters are in upper case and the rest are in lower case letters, "MHIRAWwmasl."

4. There are sites that would require that you use numbers in your password. When you do, avoid using your birthday or any other significant numbers in your password like the last four digit of your social security number. Pick a number that you can easily and remember and put it at the middle of your password, "MHIRAW1980wmasl."

5. Lastly, use punctuation marks and other symbols for your password to make it harder for others to guess, "?MHIRAW1980wmasl@." You can choose to use symbols at the beginning, end or middle of your password. The password that we just generated now is very complicated and I can bet that no ordinary identity thief can guess that.

Tina L. Douglas is a well established author on the topic of identity theft.

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