Choose non-dictionary words

If you use 26 lowercase letters of the alphabet and a password length of seven characters you will have 26 = 8.03 billion combinations to choose from.

This may appear large but it will be cracked in 45 minutes by a common computer.

Passwords longer than seven characters, using non-dictionary words are therefore to be preferred in an attempt to use 'good' passwords.

Deadly writing

Don't make the password so complicated and bizarre that you cannot remember it unless you wrote it down somewhere. Commit your password to memory with a keyword or picturisation.

Imagine for example, a cuckoo clock striking one, on the top of your bank building.

If you don't leave your house key below the door mat, you don't leave your password below the keyboard, mouse pad, in your diary, or on a post it slip stuck to your monitor.

If you have to store it, make it a sentence only you understand. For example, cuckoo clock above the bank strikes one. Never keep the user name and password together.

Follow system rules

Online banking comes with some preset safeguards. Your password is masked when you type it -- it is not displayed on the screen. You are required to reset passwords periodically.

When you reset, you are asked for the old password for authentication. Your new password has to be typed twice, so that you don't inadvertently set a password with a typo and are unable to retrieve it. Your account is locked after a few attempts at guessing the password. You can ask for resetting if you have genuinely lost the password.

As most writers on the subject say, a password is like your toothbrush: choose carefully, change regularly, and never share it with anyone.

Courtesy: TNN