Tips on Good Secure PINs and Passwords

• Think of an easily remembered sentence, then to make up a password out of the first letters of the sentence. If you started with Abraham Lincoln's "A house divided against itself cannot stand", you would get the password "ahdaics".
  
  
• Add additional complexity to your password by mixing upper and lower case letters and adding numbers. Most passwords are case sensitive, so using both upper and lower case greatly multiplies the difficulty of cracking this password. If you were to include an "L" for Lincoln, and the number 1858 for the year in which Lincoln gave this speech, you would get: "AhdaicsL1858". It looks complex, but it is not too hard to remember the quote, the speaker and the year.
  
  
• Some systems also allow the use of symbols in passwords, and if your sstem allows it, you should take advantage of. In this example, you could add an easily remembered explanation mark and a number hash to make the password "Ahdaics!L#1858", which makes it quite a strong password.
  
  This change has also added length to the password, which greatly compounds the difficulties for a would-be password cracker. You should aim for at least 8 characters in your passwords, and ideally 14 or more.

• Use separate passwords in each use, not shared or common passwords
  
  
• Keep your passwords secure, and shared only on a "need to know" basis.
  
  
• Change your passwords every few months
  
  
• Never use your passwords on a shared computer where keystroke logging software could possibly be installed (e.g. at a cybercafe or public library)
  
  
• Never give your password to anyone pretending to be someone in authority: banks, for example, will never request your password or PIN.

• Do's and Don'ts of Choosing a Secure Password