In our previous blog we discussed the need for having strong or even stronger passwords on you office space Toronto computer and for your e-mail, financials, personal data, online banking and other places on the internet that you wish to keep safe from cyber criminals and would-be hackers. In this blog we will give you some help and information about how to create a stronger password.
As we mentioned in the previous blog, you should avoid using whole words because they make it too easy for intruders to guess. When creating a strong password consider using various types of alphabetical characters (upper and lower case), numbers and punctuation symbols such as ` ~ ! @ # &$ % ^ * ) ( _ – + = { } [ ] \ | : ; ” ‘ < > , . ? /. A password might meet all the criteria above and still be a weak password. If you wanted to use the address of office space Toronto as your password – “1yongeStreet!” – that password may look strong because it has a number, an upper case letter and a punctuation symbol, but it is still week because it contains a whole word. Instead you may want to consider “1y0ng-Str33t!” instead or insert a space between the 1 and the y like this “1 y0ng-Str33t!”. Some applications and sites do not allow spaces, so use hyphens. But again, using the address of your downtown Toronto office space would not be a good idea.
While a true criminal may try to use “brute-force search” or “exhaustive search” algorithms that try every possible combination of letters, numbers and punctuation, that does not mean that you should make it easier for them by having a weak password. Even though these cyber criminals may have access to machines that can try thousands or millions of possible passwords per second, having a more complicated password vastly decreases the chances a cyber criminal will be able to guess or hack your office for rent Toronto computer password or your online account passwords.
Another important step to help protect yourself is to change your password regularly, but make sure it is significantly different from previous passwords you have used before.