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We take the security of your personal information very seriously but the weakest point of any security measures that we put in place to protect you is the password that gains access to your account.
We're asking you to use a longer or more complex password which will be difficult for a hacker to guess. To make this as flexible as possible for you, we've provided for two different password schemes - one with a shorter length but requiring non-alphabetic characters in the mix - and another where you don't have to use wierd characters but the password has to be much longer.
We like passphrases. Here's why
Using the passphrase scheme you can use simple words and characters of any description with a length of at least 28 characters. That would be the equivalent of using four average sized words with spaces between them. There is no upper limit on the number of characters you can enter.
Passphrases are a random set of words which are much easier to remember than regular passwords and someone has 'done the math' to prove how secure they are. There's plenty of discussion online about the merits of passphrases as passwords. We like the information at useapassphrase.com to get you started with passphrases.
For some examples of this kind of password, and to generate one of your own, we like Douglas Muth's Diceware Password Generator.
Good passwords are difficult to remember and if you could remember them they are never long enough to provide decent security. But, with some extra characters thrown in, they will get the job done.
Old-school rules apply with regular passwords. We want to see at least 12 characters, with at least one uppercase letter, one digit and one non-alphanumeric character somewhere in the mix.
There are some resources online that will help you generate something secure. We like xkpassword.net because you can generate different sorts of passwords including passphrases, but to meet this site's requirements, pick the WEB-16 preset as an absolute minimum.
Check that the password you want to use meets the conditions required for security on our website. Enter a password below:
Okay, you have this password all figured out so you can remember it easily. Now you are going to use it for every website, maybe tacking on an extra letter or two for 'additional security'. If that is what you have in mind, you are about to undermine security, not just for this site but for all online accounts sharing the same underlying password.
By recycling passwords in this way, the password information stolen from one of the sites you register with can be used as the starting point to crack passwords on other sites. You are making their job easy.
If you have been recyling passwords in this way, please check Have I Been Pwned which maintains a register of known data breaches. If you discover that your details have been stolen, take steps to change the passwords on all of the sites that you have recycled your password with.
If you are serious about security, you should consider using a password manager.
Password managers securely store and retrieve login information on demand. Because they can automate this process, you will not be limited to choosing a password that you can remember - the password manager will do this for you. Password managers will help you create a unique random and complex password for each site you register with. All you have to do is to remember one master password for the password manager itself.
The best password managers have applications for desktop and mobile devices, meaning that the login information you store can be shared across all of your devices. If you work in a corporate environment there are password managers that will work across your entire organisation, sharing corporate logins while keeping individual logins private to each user. There are a couple we would recommend. Go check them out:
Image courtesy of XKCD