by Juan Leer

Created on: January 31, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

One thing that you can really do to protect your email is to protect your password. A lot of times people can get into lots of sensitive information if you have a weak password - which is an easy to guess password or a simple one. So here's some tips for making a strong password that's how to figure out:

- Make it lengthy - this is especially important if your password consists only of letters. The longer, the better. Your password must be at least 8 characters or longer, and ideally it'll be more like 14 characters or longer.

- Use a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols - The greater the variety of symbols in your password, the harder it is to guess or hack into. So add symbols, capital letters, and other things like that... it will make things harder to figure out.

- Do not use sequences or repeated letters - If someone is trying to figure your password out, something like "123456" is probably not going to hold them back very long. So don't use a password like that.

- Do not use your login name - This should go without saying, but if your login name is helium22, do not use "helium" as your password. That's a bad idea.

- Avoid dictionary words - Again, if someone is trying to hack into your password, they have tools that will search through dictionary words quickly. Combining two random words is ok, but don't put your password just as something like "banana."

So there you go. If you follow these password rules and create a strong password, you will be much safer from people hacking into your email and other sites that require a login. If you use some common sense, you shouldn't have too much to worry about on that front.

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