{"id":37,"date":"2020-07-10T12:02:35","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T16:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adelphi.edu\/it\/security\/password-best-practices\/"},"modified":"2025-07-24T13:32:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-24T17:32:25","slug":"passwords","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.adelphi.edu\/it\/security\/passwords\/","title":{"rendered":"Password Best Practices"},"content":{"rendered":"
Use a Passphrase, Not a Password<\/h2>\n
You’re better off using a longer passphrase rather than a short complex password. Each additional character added to the password makes it exponentially harder to guess for hackers.<\/p>\n
What do you think is easier to guess? Ad3lph!<\/strong> or ilikepuppiesandkittens<\/strong>? Even though Ad3lph! has a combination of capitalization, numbers and special characters, the fact that it is shorter makes it much easier to guess.<\/p>\n
The strongest password will have length with some complexity, but not something that’s too difficult for you to remember. If you have a misspelled word it makes it harder to guess as well. Think\u00a0ilikepupp3rs&kitteNs<\/strong>; you’ll remember this more easily than\u00a0T2&sd9L!<\/strong>, and you’ll be more secure.<\/p>\n
Use Different Types of Characters<\/h2>\n
Include a combination of numbers, special characters, upper- and lower-case letters.<\/p>\n
You should also mix it up a little bit; three symbols in a row is not as effective as having them broken up randomly by other characters.<\/p>\n