What Makes a Strong Password?

Weak or stolen passwords account for a large portion of data breaches.
This is why, before you do anything else, you need to make sure that your passwords are as strong and secure as possible.

In this short lesson we will therefore take a quick look at the following:

Why your old password may no longer be enough
Common password traps to avoid
What makes a strong password
Good password examples
Why you should use a password manager
Take the quiz!

Why your old password may no longer be enough

The time it takes to crack a password has gone down radically over the past five years.
A simple 8-character password like “Anna2017” takes less than one second to crack.

Passwords in this format (name, birth year or birthdate) are also common and easily guessed.

Common password traps to avoid

Every year, NordPass publishes a list of the 200 most common passwords. Despite increased focus on cyber security in recent years, simple passwords like “123456”, “admin” and “password” still top the list. If any of your passwords match those on the list – change them immediately.

As we just saw, a common password in the name+birthday format is not secure. In general, you should avoid using personal information in your password. Since most of us have some social media presence, we tend to ‘leak’ private info without being fully aware of the risks.

Therefore, avoid the following when creating passwords:

Names and birthdates (your own, close family, partner, or pet)
Contact information (your address or phone number)
Your vehicle brand and licence number
Sports and fan clubs that you have publicly shown interest in (“Liverpool1” is one of the most common passwords in the UK)

If you suspect that your password has been leaked, you can run a quick check on haveibeenpwned.com.

A strong password has good length and complexity, and cannot be easily guessed or cracked. SanoSec’s recommended setup for passwords (as of September 2026) is the following:

Length: 20 characters or more
Contains at least two of the following, ideally all four: Big letters, small letters, numbers, and special characters.
Avoid using three or more of the same character in a row (888, fff)
Avoid repeating words (FrogFrog)

Good password examples

Use passphrases (longer sentences) instead of a regular password. If you use dialect, slang, or mix in different languages, that could make your password harder to break.

Here are some examples of what this might look like:

86_Hvitveis_Peacock_Lampara
#Anywhere-is-somewhere-2
44 minSTRels gone c4mp1ng @Dover

DO NOT USE THESE EXAMPLES AS YOUR OWN PASSWORD!

These are for inspiration only, and we don’t want to see them featured on the top 200 passwords list next year.

Password hygiene: How to manage your passwords

Creating a strong password is just the first step. Next, we need to look at how you manage those passwords. Here are some guidelines that you want to follow:

Never leave passwords exposed or share them with anyone.
Sticky notes on your computer screen are not the right place for passwords. Notebooks or unencrypted text files should also be avoided.
Do not reuse your passwords.
If your Facebook page gets hacked, any other service or platform that you’ve used that password on will also be at risk.
Use a dedicated password manager to keep track of them all.
Remembering one password (for your password manager) is a lot easier than remembering fifty of them.

What is a password manager and why should you use one?

A password manager is a secure, digital vault that keeps track of your login credentials for you. It can also help you create new passwords, and fill in your credentials automatically when you log on to a site.

You may use aywhere between 20 and 200 different services in a month. Email accounts, streaming services, social media profiles, and online newspaper subscriptions all ask you to login with a username and password. In the end, that’s a lot of login information to remember.

If you use a password manager, you only need to remember a single password; the one you use for your password manager. That makes things a lot simpler.

Which password manager should you choose?

Bitwarden, DashLane, Proton Pass… There are many to choose from.
Which you end up with depends on your needs, budget, and preferences.

For the budget conscious, these password managers have good free-tier options:

🇺🇸 Bitwarden

🇨🇭 ProtonPass

Other popular password managers:

🇱🇹 NordPass

🇨🇦 1Password

🇺🇸 / 🇫🇷 Dashlane

🇺🇸 LastPass