Is Your Password Strong Enough? The Answer Might Shock You (It’s Probably Not)
Okay, let’s talk passwords. Everyone has one. But not everyone has a good one. And by good, I mean strong enough to stop hackers in their tracks. I’ve told my kids — and now my grandkids — this for years: A weak password is like leaving your front door wide open. A strong one? It’s a locked vault. Let me show you why this matters. Visit the free website Have I Been Pawned? (https://haveibeenpwned.com) and type in your email address. This tool will show you if any websites where you’ve shared your personal information have been hacked. If your email shows up, it means your private data — like passwords — could be out on the internet for anyone to see. That’s a big deal. If this happens, change your passwords now to protect yourself. What’s Wrong With "zoom" as a Password? Imagine someone picks “zoom” as their password. Looks short and easy to remember. But here’s the problem… I ran it through a site called Password Monster (https://www.passwordmonster.com). It stated that a hacker could crack it in under 1 second. Yep. One second. Blink and you’re hacked. How to Create a Strong Password A strong password: - At least 10 characters long - Use uppercase and lowercase letters - Include numbers - Add symbols like !, @, or $ Sounds easy enough, right? 👉 Start with a sentence you’ll remember. Let’s say you love bears. Then a simple sentence could be: "Bears love honey." Cute. Now let’s turn it into a strong password. 1. Remove any spaces: Bearslovehoney 2. Capitalize the first letter of each word: BearsLoveHoney 3. Replace "e" with 3: B3arsLov3Hon3y 4. Replace "a" with @: B3@rsLov3Hon3y 5. Replace "o" with 0: B3@rsL0v3H0n3y 6. Optional: Add a favorite number at the end: B3@rsL0v3H0n3y567 7. End with an exclamation point or other symbol: B3@rsL0v3H0n3y567! That’s a strong password. Password Monster says it would take a hacker 3 months to break it. Better than 1 second, right? Tiny changes make a big difference.