7 Tips for Creating a

STRONG Password

7 Tips for Creating a

STRONG Password

Are my passwords really secure?

7 Tips for Creating a

STRONG Password

Are my passwords really secure?

This is one of the most common questions we get as IT professionals.

Here at CA Technologies, we are in the business of protecting online applications and transactions.

And in a world where information is shockingly accessible, we want to help YOU protect YOURSELF online.

That said, here are 7 tips for creating a STRONG password:

Choose a sentence or phrase that is meaningful to you...

1

This can be ANYTHING, from “I love security more than life” to “My favorite sports are soccer and baseball”.

For the sake of this demonstration, we will use “I love security more than life” as our example.

Select the first letter of each word.

2

So “I love security more than life” becomes “ilsmtl”.

Now, insert uppercase and lowercase letters.

3

It’s up to you which letters you pick, but for this example we’ll choose these: “ilsmtl” “iLsMtL”

Substitute letters with numbers or special characters.

4

This is the icing on the cake for a secure password. Here’s what we came up with: “iLsMtL” “1L$MtL”

Now that you know how to create a strong password, here are a few things NOT to do…

DO NOT choose a password with successive keyboard strokes, such as “12345” or “QWERTY”.

5

These are the passwords tend to get cracked first. Avoid this at all costs!

DO NOT write your passwords down and display them in your workspace.

6

This may seem self-explanatory, but it happens much more than you’d think!

And finally, whatever you do, DO NOT use the same password to access multiple systems.

7

This is extremely common. In fact, a recent CA poll indicated that 100% of participants use the same password to access multiple systems!

But if just one system falls victim to a security breach, the hackers can now access ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION! This is important to avoid.

In the end, no password is 100% secure. But if you take this advice into account, you will be much less vulnerable to online threats.

If you want to learn more, check out our Problem with Passwords Video and our presentation on Intelligent Authentication.