When selecting a password in a secure environment, follow these guidelines to create a secure password

Creating a more difficult password can be a challenge to remember, but realize that each level of complexity you add to your password makes more secure and difficult to crack.

WHY?

Using standard password cracking software a five character password can be hacked in two minutes, a six character password will take a little more than an hour. For a seven character password it will take just shy of two days and eight character passwords take 65 days. If the eight character password contains letters (upper and lower case), numbers and special characters (for example *, !, $, &, %) it will take 463 years to hack.

When creating a password be sure to follow these basic guidelines.

DO

• use a combination of upper- and lower-case letters
• include numbers and special characters (for example *, !, $, &, %)
• use nonsensical strings of letter (for example the first letters of a sentence you can remember)
• use at least 8 characters
• make up a nonsense word
• make up an acronym
• misspell a word intentionally
• string together syllables from a favorite song or poem.

DON'T

• use any names or numbers that can be connected to you (for example names of spouses, children and pets, phone numbers, important dates or years, the name of your high school, the model of your car)
• use a combination of your children's names
• use any information that can be obtained through any public record (maiden names, names of streets you lived on before, year you were married)
• repeat characters or letters in sequence on the keyboard (for example 12345 and qwerty)
• use real words (they can be guessed by dictionary based hacker programs)
• use real words spelled backwards
• share your password
  
  (Source: Password Protection by Teresa Dixon Murray)