Today, nearly every single website requires you to sign up for an account, input your email, make a password, confirm your password, confirm your date of birth, I don’t want email updates, I’m not a robot, on and on and on and on. It’s exhausting to come up with a new, unique, memorable password for every site you create an account on, much less to actually remember them when you need it. So it’s only expected that people use basic, easy to remember passwords like ”pass”, “password”, and “123456”, or use the same password on multiple sites. Then, data breaches happen. In early 2019, a data breach titled “Collection 1” leaked over 21,222,975 passwords, and it’s very possible that your passwords were among them. So, we’re going to show you how to create and safely store your passwords.

First things first: What makes a good password? Use this checklist to see if your passwords are up to snuff.

A good password should:

1. Be at least 10 characters long.
2. Contain uppercase and lowercase letters, along with numbers and symbols.
3. Only be used once.
4. NOT contain common words, like password or admin.
5. NOT contain any reference to your name, birthdate, or any other personal details.

So now you’ve got some strong passwords. Great! Now try to remember them all off the top of your head.

Let’s see, there’s Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Amazon, Netflix, Instagram, Snapchat, your email... 

Yikes. Let’s make this just a little bit less painful. If you have a ton of accounts, it’s probably time to download a password manager. Good options include 1Password, Bitwarden, or Dashlane. Password managers store your passwords for you, and need a password to access them, so you’ll only need to remember 1 password ever again. Additionally, some password managers will generate strong passwords for you, so you can even forgo the previous step.

Passwords are used so frequently on the internet, we can sometimes forget that passwords are one of the most important lines of defense to ensure a secure online experience. Keep yourself safe, and remember: don’t ever write your passwords on a sheet of paper.