4+ Ways to Create a Strong Password

According to statistics, the most popular password in the world is “123456.” The next most popular are “123456789,” “qwerty,” and “password.” Obviously, these passwords are anything but safe and they are easy to hack even if you are not even remotely a hacker.

5-Minute Crafts is going to tell you how to make a difficult, cryptic password and protect your data from outsiders.

Method № 1: Password generator

Use one of the password generators you can find online. It will make a safe password using all the possible elements: numbers, Latin letters in the lower and uppercases, punctuation marks, and special symbols. For example: 0a@e*V3z6qZ6K

Of course, this password is really hard to memorize. You will have to write it down or save it in a special password app.

Method № 2: Password — word

Create a password using the names of your favorite book, meal, band, movie, or any other word that quickly appears in your mind.

For example, if you are a huge fan of Harry Potter. Write “harrypotter” put the first letters in uppercase “HarryPotter,” separate the words with a special symbol “Harry@Potter” and at the end, add the number of the book you liked the most. It will be a pretty safe password at 13 symbols — Harry@Potter6.

Method № 3: Password — phrase

The idea is the same as the previous one, but the password will be way more complicated and safer. For example, a fan of Star Wars can try to make a password using the famous “May the Force be with you!”

Remove the spaces, and preserve the original case structure of the letters and the exclamation mark at the end. You have MaytheForcebewithyou!. Then, use “W/” to replace “with.” And then, add a few digits. For example, the number of your favorite film from the original trilogy and one of the next films. You will have something like: 3MaytheForcebeW/you!2.

Method № 4: Password — encoded phrase

And finally, the most difficult password is an encoded phrase that looks like a random series of symbols. As an example, let’s take a famous phrase from the world of movies, “I will make you an offer you can’t refuse.”

For each word, take 2 letters from each word — one in uppercase and the other in lowercase. You have IWiMaYoAnOfYoCaRe. Replace the first letter with an exclamation mark, and the lowercase “а” with the “@” symbol. At the end, add the number of your favorite The Godfather film and you will have: !WiM@YoAnOfYoC@Re1.

Useful tips

✅ Make your passwords memorable by using your keyboard like a canvas. For example, 5minutecrafts4rfvgyjmko0 is hard to remember if you don’t know that the second part of the password makes a W on your keyboard.

✅ Update or change your most essential passwords often. Ideally, you’ll do that in regular timeframes, for example, every month. Unfortunately, password databases leak all the time, so if you change your passwords often enough, you are safe.

✅ Improve your safety by using multi-factor authentication. This means that when you want to access your account from a new device, a special code will be sent to your mobile phone and you will need to enter it in addition to your password. You can also use a random password generator.

❌ Don’t use the same password for all of the resources you use. Every important resource (mail, social media page, bank) has to have its own password. Otherwise, if someone hacks one of your accounts, all of them are in danger.