Passwords and PINs should protect your personal and sensitive information. But what makes a password or PIN secure enough, and how can you minimize the chances of someone else guessing it?
Easy to remember and hard to guess
It's crucial to secure user accounts with strong passwords to prevent unauthorized access to your personal data. But how can you tell if a password is good?
A good password is one that is easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess. In practice, this means that the password should be unique and relatively long. A helpful tip from experts is to choose a password that is associated with a positive experience from your past—something personal that not many people know about.
Effective passwords often include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. An easy way to incorporate special characters is by using spaces; for instance, your password could be a phrase. (Yes, using spaces in a password is perfectly acceptable!) This way, we can refer to the password as a passphrase. A passphrase that resembles a sentence is usually easy for you to remember and very difficult for others to guess.
PINs
PINs should also be difficult to guess to enhance security. When selecting a PIN for your mobile phone or SIM card, follow these simple guidelines to strengthen its security:
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Avoid using personal dates, such as birthdays, years of birth, or anniversaries, as these can be easily guessed by someone who knows you.
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Stay away from easy-to-guess numbers or obvious keyboard patterns, such as 1234 or 5555.
A good strategy for creating a memorable yet secure PIN is to choose a word that matches the length of the PIN you want to create. Look at the number keys on your mobile keyboard—each number corresponds to certain letters. Select the number keys that match the letters of the word you have chosen. This way, you only need to remember a single word instead of a long sequence of numbers.
Why are good passwords and PINs important?
As mentioned earlier, it is essential to have strong security measures concerning passwords and PIN codes to prevent them from being guessed and falling into the wrong hands. Hackers often use algorithms that scan through dictionaries and lists of common passwords to break into accounts.
In other words, if your password is found in such a list, you are much more vulnerable to cyber attacks than if your password is unique.
By following these straightforward tips when creating passwords or PINs, you can significantly reduce the risk of unauthorized access to your accounts and devices.