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Extreme care should be taken in choosing your password.

There are also a number of "Brute Force" programs which are used to generate password possibilities based on a set of words. These programs will then attempt to log onto an account with as many different passwords as possible, hoping that it will eventually "guess" the account password so that it can logon successfully. Below is a list of password creation suggestions that will reduce the effectiveness of these programs.

• Make sure your password does not contain words from any dictionary (forwards or backwards)
• Most "Brute Force" programs use a list of common words and terms which they use to generate a list of possible passwords. Commonly, dictionaries from multiple languages and technical terms are used
• Use letters, numbers, and symbols
• Simply adding a string of numbers at the end of the password is typically not enough to guarantee security
• Make your password at least 8 characters long
• A longer password will decrease the chance that someone is able to guess it
• Avoid common number/letter replacements. (i.e. 1 and I, 3 and e)
• Most "Brute Force" programs are aware of these replacements, and it uses them when creating a list of possible passwords to use.
• Do not use any keyboard sequences (i.e. qwerty)
• Keyboard strings are common in many passwords, and for this reason many "Brute Force" programs use them as well.
• Do not use your own account name
• Using your own account name in your password, even if it is followed by other words or numbers, increases the chance that a hacker can guess you password
• Avoid repeating small sequences of characters (i.e. abcabc)
• Most "Brute Force" programs have a list of common sequences that they use when trying to generate a list of possible passwords