Password Protection

     It seems that password protection comes up a lot in security discussions, and the act of properly setting up a password for whatever you plan on securing can be a daunting task for novice computer users.

     Creating extremely complex passwords aren't the answer to solving your password security needs. I'll explain four easy rules that one can use to create secure but easy to remember passwords that will save one the embarrassment of creating a new account or contacting their administrator to reset existing accounts numerous times.

Password complexity- It's known that the length and addition special characters incorporated in the password can set the strength making it harder to randomly guessing what it is. 

• Passwords should at least be eight characters long.
• Contain at least one symbol and number.
• Should not be just a single word found in a dictionary.
• Contain at least one upper case letter.

     For example, lets take the typically used and weak password "love". 

This weak password can become stronger with by adding more characters "howtolove"

now lets add at least one symbol and number to make it even stronger. "howto1ove!"

By adding these adjustments, we changed the password from being a single 

word found in the dictionary to something more complex. Let's complete

our password by using our final rule so it contains at least one upper case letter. "Howto1ove!"

     Email clients such as Google incorporate safeguards that tell the user if the password entered during email setup are weak. When the user includes one of the four rules listed above the strength increases. If all rules are used, the user has added a level of complexity that can stop unauthorized access from simple password guessing.