How do I create a secure password?

• One should never create a password from a word or sequence of numbers. Passwords based on personal information such as pets, names or birthdays are particularly easy to crack.
• A long password is certainly more difficult to crack than a short one – but a good combination is crucial at this stage.
• Avoid whole strings of numbers or whole keyboard lines, such as ASDFGHJKL.
• The complexity of a password is the key to a strong password. A successful combination includes lower & upper case letters, numbers and special characters.

If you want to create a strong password, you can resort to the help of a password generator. However, these passwords can be hard to remember.

To generate a strong password yourself, you can, for example, put together the first character of each word, number and punctuation mark from a sentence:
My password for Facebook is today – Thursday 04. May 23!
Password: MpfFit-T04.M23!

Another possibility would be to use “Leetspeak”. Here, letters are replaced by similar looking numbers and special characters:
The sound of silence = 7h3_50und_0f_51l3nc3

Check your password using a password checker. This determines how long a hacker would need to crack the password.
You can also see whether the password has been affected by a leak. You can do this on the following page: www.passwortcheck.ch

Avoid saving or writing down your password as much as possible. If this is not possible, you can use a password manager.

It is important that you use a separate password for each service. The password you choose should be known only to you – do not give it to anyone you know.

Keylogging involves a hacker installing malware on your device that can record your keystrokes as they type on the computer.

Although these attacks are more difficult to accomplish compared to phishing & password spraying attacks, a hacker could find out usernames and passwords if he is observant enough. Since the attacker is able to see what you type, it does no good to create a strong password to protect you. In this case, it is a good idea to install a reliable EDR – Endpoint Detection & Response Security programme that will alert you to a potential threat on your device.