Learn how to set up strong password policy for your accounts in 2021

Passwords are secret texts, keys, or patterns used to secure our accounts or devices to prevent unauthorized access.

Therefore one must be very cautious when setting up passwords to prevent easy guess or breakage by our ‘bad guys’. In It security, there is a quote that “ No device is secured as long as it is connected to the internet” but one can at least implement measures that will safeguard him/her a bit, in terms of unauthorized access.

Password Strength

According to Wikipedia; “Password strength is a measure of the effectiveness of a password against guessing or brute-force attacks. In its usual form, it estimates how many trials an attacker who does not have direct access to the password would need, on average, to guess it correctly”

So based on the above definition passwords can be categorized into weak, medium, or strong depending on their length, ability to be easily guessed, length of time to be guessed, etc.

Weak Passwords

Weak Passwords I believe your guess is as good as mine, these password types are mostly less than eight characters, easy to be guessed, and contain raw data like our names, date of birth, or contact details.

Medium Passwords

These password types are a bit higher than weak passwords with characters above eight, not necessarily made up of raw data, not mostly easily guessed in the shortest possible time, etc.

Strong Passwords

These password types should be aimed at, and it is mostly more than eight characters, a mixture of alphabets, numbers, and symbols. Guessing such passwords will not be all that easy as it might contain random patterns, a mixture of our bio-data, and other characters.

Recommended Standards in setting up passwords

In setting up passwords the following 10 principles should be followed;

Use not less than eight characters
Use a combination of alphabets, numbers, and symbols and ensure at least you use one capital letter
Try to avoid using one password for all your accounts, in that when one account is hacked, the rest cannot. So at least have two separate passwords you use across your accounts
Avoid using raw bio-data like your contact, name, date of birth, etc.
Avoid using names that are popular like cities, countries, football clubs, towns, etc, even if you will use them mix them with other characters.
Even if you will use your bio-data combine it with other characters like symbols and numbers
When writing down your passwords for easy remembrance in the future try to encrypt them by writing them in a coded manner. For example let’s say our password is the word ‘password’ and we want to write it down, we can encrypt it like this ‘do$$warp’. With this encryption only you understand.
Never give your password to people in any circumstance, in an event where you have to enter your password like checking your e-pay slip at a cafe, enter it yourself, don’t give it to the café attendant to do so.
When using a computer at a café to access your email or other accounts, don’t check on that little checkbox that says ‘keep me signed in’
Always remember to logout from public computers where you signed in to your account or immediately change your password when you feel it is compromised.