Strong Passwords and Passphrases

0:00What makes a password strong enough to keep your account safe?

0:04Attackers use programs that can try a huge number of guesses very fast.

0:10They try the most common passwords first, like password one two three.

0:17Pet names and birth years are easy for other people to find out.

0:24Guessing programs also know swaps, like an at sign for a and a zero for o.

0:31Length helps a lot: each extra lowercase letter means 26 times as many passwords to try.

0:40A passphrase joins a few random words into one long password.

0:46This one has 21 characters, yet it is easy to remember.

0:51Pick the words at random, not a well-known phrase.

0:56Use a different password for each account.

1:00Then one leaked password cannot open your other accounts.

1:05A strong password is long, random and used only once, so try a passphrase.