With the internet seemingly taking over our lives, choosing passwords can be a nightmare. Choose a too complicated example, and you’ll end up having to write down and carrying it around with you, which somewhat defeats the purpose of the exercise.

Choose a too simple example and you could find that you are compromised quite quickly.

So, treat a password as you would a bank card PIN; with some care and attention.

Most people choose a password that they find easy to remember, then use that for everything they ever need a password for and then never ever end up changing them.

All understandable – and all wrong.

Let’s start again. First things first.

Choose long passwords, or ones at least seven characters. There’s space for 127 characters, so don’t be shy. Perhaps when you think of a password, think of two and combine them together maybe, and then jumble them up, as it will still be memorable, but it will be nice and long.

Use letters which are both lowercase and uppercase. This is good security, but watch this, as it might also be catch you out. So don’t just use the uppercase at the start, maybe use it at an obvious place in the middle instead.

Numbers are great to throw in there as well, plus, throw in a few more wobblies such as special characters, like <, /, or #. You get the picture and there’s loads to choose from, including those lovely non-ASCII characters which lurk in the depths of your keyboard. Although, as before, be careful when you use these, because if the password is too nifty, you might find yourself locked out of your own system.

But you can see the overall logic. Mix it up a bit; don’t do what the hacker is expecting.

And this leads us onto the mistakes that most people make. Don’t use your name, parts of your name, or names of anyone else you know. Don’t include personal information and please, don’t use birthdays. It’s the most common mistake when creating passwords and PINS, so avoid it.

And just a word to the wise – which everyone must know – don’t share your password with anyone, don’t use the same password across all your accounts and don’t use it forever.

As for this last point, try and get into the habit of changing your password every, at least, three months. Best practise is every month, but that might just be a bit too onerous for most people.

Okay, get cracking. Watch the film Enigma, get into the mood, and start composing some beautiful passwords. And in case you want them checking, there are a number of testers online which tell you how clever you’ve been. Just (this is a joke, but just in case), don’t use one that asks you for your personal details as well!

How Safe Are Your Passwords and PINS – Recap

• choose long passwords;
• use lowercase and uppercase;
• use numbers and special characters if possible;
• don’t use names, birthdays etc;
• and don’t tell anyone.