A password is like a key to your home. If someone steals it, there are chances he will use it to steal something else. We use passwords everywhere in our life, but the life of an Internet user is absolutely impossible without passwords: e-mail, online discussion groups, e-bank, commercial websites — all of them use password-based authentication.
We use our “virtual keys” everywhere and all the time. We are so accustomed to passwords, that we don’t pay any attention to them until someone steals it …
For protection of our “virtual keys” we can choose a safe password. That makes a “job” for thieves much more difficult. It's not as hard as we can imagine!!!
In nowadays there are special information security awareness trainings, but here are only some simple rules that we need to notice choosing our “virtual keys”!!!
* The password must be at least 8 characters long. The longer—the better.
* It must not contain any part of username.
* The password must not be word that can be found in glossary.
* It must not be based on anything that some other person can easily guess or find with the use of personal data (e.g. name, telephone number, birth date, etc.).
* The password must contain a mixture of upper- and lower-case characters, numbers, punctuation marks and special characters.
* The password must not be composed from:
o Sequence of identical symbols;
o Groups of numbers or capital/small letters only;
o Sequence of letters or numbers (e.g. “abc”, “123”);
o Sequence of letters on the keyboard (e.g. “qwert”).
* It must be meaningless (Hint: use the first letters of a sentence which you know well).
* If a password is hard to remember, it is also hard to guess.
* Change your password at least every two months.
And if we notice that, our passwords will be safe and protect!!!
Article source:
information security awareness 
