Today I want to talk about creating strong passwords, because this is the first and one of the most important steps to secure your online activity. Let's figure out how to create passwords that are strong and hard to crack.

🔐Password length. The longer the password, the harder it is to crack. I recommend using at least 25 characters and avoid obvious combinations like your date of birth, your pet's name, etc.

🔐Special characters. Use lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and special characters for greater complexity. Or password phrases of at least 6-7 words. This is enough entropy to protect your accounts. Example password: "MnV&aoM3xnQu!4Cm#n%792tgF!GD7f4ec^$" Example passphrase: "causing-bakery-landmass-thermal-oversleep-skipping-recycled"

🔐Uniqueness. Obligatory rule - different passwords for different accounts. The password must never be repeated. Many people neglect this rule.

How do you create such passwords and don't forget them? It's simple - password managers. These are programs that generate complex passwords and store them in an encrypted form, so that nobody but you can access them. The only password you need to remember is the password from the password manager itself. It too should be complex enough, but in a way that you will remember it.

I recommend using open source password managers such as KeePassXC, Bitwarden. By no means use password managers built into your browser and do not use popular ones like 1password, LastPass. These companies have been hacked, plus they have closed source code.

KeePassXC is a completely local password manager. That is, it creates an encrypted database offline. And then you can move that database between devices.

Bitwarden (I use it) is a cloud-based password manager. The database is encrypted offline on your device and transferred already encrypted to the cloud, so you can conveniently sync between devices.

We recommend that you change your passwords at least once a year for important accounts.

*Bonus. A service where you can enter your email address and check if your passwords have been leaked and in which services - haveibeenpwned.