Password Tips

The object when choosing a password is to make it as difficult as possible for a cracker to make educated guesses about what you've chosen. This leaves him no alternative but a brute-force search, trying every possible combination of letters, numbers, and punctuation.

• Do change your password frequently such as every month.
• Do use a different password for every account you maintain online.
• Do use a password with non-alphabetic characters, e.g., digits or punctuation.
• Do use a password that is easy to remember, so you don't have to write it down.
• Don't use any names of family, friends, pets.
• Don't use your telephone number, zip code, your initials, any part of your name, or address.
• Don't use a password shorter than six characters.
• Don't reuse any portion of your old password
• Don't use a word contained in dictionaries, spelling lists, or other lists of words.
• Don't let anyone observe you using your password.
• Don't use your login name in any form (as-is, reversed, capitalized, doubled, etc.).
• Don't use a password of all digits, or all the same letter.
• Don't respond to any request for your password.
• Don't let anyone know your password.
• Do not check the "remember my password" feature, without considering the value of the data the password protects.