Having a difficult time thinking up a password? Need to automatically generate a password as part of a larger application? This page can help! It randomly creates a password of any specified length using alphabetic and numeric input.
A strong password.
• Is at least eight characters long.
• Does not contain your user name, real name, or company name.
• Does not contain a complete dictionary word.
• Is significantly different from previous passwords. Passwords that increment (Password1, Password2, Password3 ...) are not strong.
Strong and complex passwords must contain characters from three of the following five categories:
• Uppercase characters of European languages (A through Z, with diacritic marks, Greek and Cyrillic characters)
• Lowercase characters of European languages (a through z, sharp-s, with diacritic marks, Greek and Cyrillic characters)
• Base 10 digits (0 through 9)
• Any Unicode character that is categorized as an alphabetic character but is not uppercase or lowercase. This includes Unicode characters from Asian languages.
A weak password:
• Is no password at all.
• Contains your user name, real name, or company name.
• Contains a complete dictionary word. For example, Password is a weak password.
Best practices.
• Always use strong passwords
• If passwords must be written down on a piece of paper, store the paper in a secure place and destroy it when it is no longer needed.
• Never share passwords with anyone.
• Use different passwords for all user accounts.
• Change passwords immediately if they may have been compromised.
• Be careful about where passwords are saved on computers. Some dialog boxes, such as those for remote access and other telephone connections, present an option to save or remember a password. Selecting this option poses a potential security threat.