Online security should always be a number 1 priority. Using an online password vault means you can safely store your username and password details for websites with and they’ll always be completely safe (you can even make up a random password of numbers, lower case and upper case characters and you’ll always be able to find it). However, passwords should be safe in the first place and good password practice is half the battle for online safety.

Below, you’ll find a short list of really good password tips:

1. Never use a common word (you should never use an uncommon word either). Words you can find in a dictionary are a big no no. Similarly, never use a consecutive string of numbers (or letters for that matter). Notable culprits are ‘123456’, ‘abcdef’ and ‘password.’

2. Your passwords should be at least 8 characters long (the longer the better).

3. Never use information that people may be able to find out about you i.e. the street you live on, the company you work for or the name of a relative.

4. Use a random selection of upper and lower case characters, numbers and punctuation marks. Having at least 1 of each is a great idea, having 2 of each is even better! Some websites and services might not allow punctuation in a password but you should at least aim for numbers and upper and lower cased characters.

5. Another great tip is to replace standard characters with numbers or punctuation marks. For example: A = 4, S = $, E = £ and so on. Another tip which works quite well is to have the first and last letters upper case. Taking these tips on board, the notoriously unsafe ‘password’ can be made safer by changing it to ‘P4$5w0rD.’

6. Another tip is to not have recurring letters, even if they are not sequential e.g. the word ‘financial’ has three characters that occur twice, even though they are not side by side.

7. A tip that works well for us is to use foreign words that aren’t in the English dictionary. For example, you could try using Korean words instead. Take the word ‘yeong’ (this is Korean for the number zero), add some upper casing, numbers and punctuation and you’ve got a password that will be a lot tougher to crack than ‘password’. ‘Y£0nG12’ vs. ‘123456’ – which one is statistically harder to crack? The first one of course!

There are many great websites that rate password strength. One of which ranked ‘Y£0nG12’ as being 72% strong; add a simple + (so it becomes ‘Y£0nG12+’) and it rises to 98%! Compare this to ‘123456’ which has a strength of only 4%. This means a password cracking tool will take seconds to crack ‘123456’ but a lot longer for ‘Y£0nG12+.’

8. Another tip that can never be overstated is that you should never reveal your password to anyone – not even your nearest and dearest. Following on from this tip, it is not a good idea to store or save your username and password details with your browser. Although this saves time, it’ll be a disaster should someone gain access to your computer (whether via the internet or locally). Even people you trust (i.e. your family and friends) should not have access to your online accounts.

For online peace of mind, it’s important that you use strong passwords for all your accounts. Hopefully by using some, if not all, of the tips above, you will be able to have a good, strong password.

Author Bio: Myhomepage.com – Your personalized homepage and online password manager – for all your favorite bookmarks and logins. myhomepage is a personalized homepage that lets you bookmark all your favorite websites and store all of your logins in one place, a secure password vault.

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: Online password manager, Password Vault, online password, online password safety, Password Manager