A password is a secret key for logging in. A strong password is one that other people cannot easily guess.
What makes a password strong? Mostly its length. The longer it is, the harder it is to guess. A great trick is a passphrase, a few random words strung together, like "taco-moon-river-socks."
You can also mix it up with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols. But long beats fancy.
Weak passwords cause big problems. Things like "123456" or "password" get guessed in seconds, which puts your accounts at risk.
So stay safe: use a long password or passphrase, never reuse the same one, keep it secret, and turn on MFA when you can.
Remember: long is strong, unique is safer, keep it secret, and use 2FA too.
What to remember
- A strong password is long and hard to guess.
- A passphrase of random words is strong and easy to remember.
- Never reuse the same password, and keep it secret.
- Turn on MFA for extra safety.
Words to know
- Strong password
- A password that is hard for anyone to guess.
- Passphrase
- A few random words used as a long password.
- Unique
- A different password for each account.
- 2FA / MFA
- An extra login step beyond the password.
For grown-ups
Password strength comes mostly from length and unpredictability; a multi-word passphrase beats a short complex string and is easier to remember. Uniqueness per site limits the blast radius from breaches, a password manager makes that practical, and MFA backstops it all.
Want the full story? These go deeper:
