Hello,
It is important for several reasons to have a strong password on your e-mail and web site accounts. Your e-mail account is the gateway into your personal information including web banking, investment accounts, and other websites that store your personal information online. There is also a growing trend of spammers breaking into e-mail accounts with weak passwords and using them to send massive amounts of spam which can lead to your ISP closing your e-mail account before you even realize that there is a problem.
The following are examples of weak passwords that must be avoided:
An example phrase is "Talk to the hand because the face ain't listening".
Use all of the first letters: ttthbtfal
Then capitalize every other letter: TtThBtFaL
Substitute in some numbers: T2ThBtF8L
Add some punctuation and generate our new strong password: T2T&btF8L!
Now that you have a strong password you need to protect it!
It is important for several reasons to have a strong password on your e-mail and web site accounts. Your e-mail account is the gateway into your personal information including web banking, investment accounts, and other websites that store your personal information online. There is also a growing trend of spammers breaking into e-mail accounts with weak passwords and using them to send massive amounts of spam which can lead to your ISP closing your e-mail account before you even realize that there is a problem.
The following are examples of weak passwords that must be avoided:
- temp
- password
- changeme
- having the same username and password
- sequences such as abcd, 1234, and abc123.
- the last 4 digits of your social security number
- your birthday or the birthday of someone close to you
- Mix capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and use punctuation.
- Create passwords that are over 8 characters long.
- Use the first letters from a phrase or sentence that you can remember.
- Substitute numbers, misspellings, and punctuation into phrase and sentence based passwords.
An example phrase is "Talk to the hand because the face ain't listening".
Use all of the first letters: ttthbtfal
Then capitalize every other letter: TtThBtFaL
Substitute in some numbers: T2ThBtF8L
Add some punctuation and generate our new strong password: T2T&btF8L!
Now that you have a strong password you need to protect it!
- Do not write it down.
- Do not tell it to anyone else.
- Never put it in an e-mail, chat, or instant message.
- Do not type your password on computers that you do not control.
- Do not use the same password for every e-mail account or web site.
- Change your passwords regularly.
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