While checking out a blog I read often, pctechbytes, I noticed a pretty cool infograph talking about how quickly a pro hacker can crack an easy password. You can see the infograph here. As you can see from the infograph, an easy password can be cracked without a ton of trouble. This can be pretty scary. Let’s look at a few ways in which you can create a secure password that is really tough to crack.

First, don’t use any of the super common and easy to crack passwords such as “password”, “password123”, “12345”, etc. If you are currently using one of these, you are asking for trouble.

Next, a good hacker may be able to find your birthdate, address, phone number, and other personal information. Try avoid using these in your password if at all possible. This will help keep you safe from the savvy hacker.

Most hackers will use some type of computer software to attempt to crack your password. Due to this, think about creating a password that is long and has a good mix of letters, numbers, and symbols. I would recommend a password that is 8 characters or more. The more the better. If you can mix the letters and numbers within the password, this is even better.  For example, not that I am recommending this, but “p@ssw0rd123” would be better than “password123”. Yet again, I want to repeat that you should Not use “p@ssw0rd123”, this was just an example. However, can you create a password in this same manner using a  non-common set of words.

Now, if you want to be super secure, you can pick a random set of letters, numbers, and characters. For example, you could use something like “j3$ox1i9ar!@q”. However, most people would have a ton of trouble remembering this. If you think you could remember something like this, more power to you.

One last tip is that you shouldn’t put your password onto your computer anywhere in plain text. This means that you shouldn’t put a password in word docs, excel spreadsheets, notepad docs, etc. This will help you in the cases in which you lose your computer or in cases that spyware or a virus infects your machine.

I know that it may seem like a big pain to have to change your current password, especially if you are using it in more than one place. However, a little hassle now might just save you a ton of hassle in the future.