The Common Mistakes That Make Your "Strong" Passwords Weak

By Leslie Horn on at

By now, you probably think you know the drill when it comes to passwords: avoid pet's names, mix up letters, change your password regularly, blah blah blah. We might think we're being clever, but according to State of the Net, the tricks we're using to make our passwords strong these days can actually make us more susceptible to hacks.

State of the Net points out what is pretty much common knowledge these days: hackers use software to crack your passwords, and the longer the password, the harder it is for them to crack. But a long password does not a secure password make. It turns out there are common patterns that people use that end up making passwords more obvious. Per State of the Net, here are three of them:



  • Starting with an upper case letter followed by lower case letters
  • Not using two special characters in the same password

So, what are you left to do? First of all, State of the Net suggests avoiding relying on password checkers, because they're often just flat wrong on the strength of your passwords. Avoid beginning a password with a capitalised letter; don't create an acronym and use the first word of each sentence as your password; avoid natural words and phrases; don't repeat the same special characters; and don't put numbers next to each other.


Photo via Computer History Museum