Dubai: A capital letter, a special character, a number and no less than eight characters.
Setting a password is difficult enough when you have one account. In today’s world, though, most online users have to create passwords for several different accounts from email to social media, from news websites to online shopping.
When asked how they picked their passwords, most Gulf News readers said they preferred to keep things simple.
Take a nice mix of your family member’s name and your telephone number or postal address and you’ll get an alphanumeric password which is easy to remember.
That, at least, is what works for Dubai resident Royston Rodrigues.
“For me, it is quite vulnerable because I use the same password for all my accounts,” the 32-year-old sales manager said.
However, he doesn’t worry too much about simple passwords compromising his online safety.
He said: “It’s not a good idea, I agree, but it is not something that bothers me enough to change my passwords. I think if someone does try to hack into my accounts, especially my bank account, I guess I feel bank security systems are strong enough that they will track the fraudulent transaction.”
Another reader, Henna Mouzamma Saeed, said she rarely puts too much thought into setting a password, except for official accounts.
“I just make sure there are very different types of special characters and numbers and I use capital letters. I just try to get a mix of that, otherwise I don’t think too much about it,” the 24-year-old laboratory engineer said.
She also felt fairly confident in her password setting skills, considering that most websites rated her password strength as ‘good’.
For electronic engineering student Shahez Ahmad, a simple trick goes a long way in creating passwords that are strong.
“Generally, I pick a word that is easy to remember. I don’t make it too complicated because I might forget it later on. At the same time, I try to add certain symbols and special characters, just to make it a bit different from others. I have a certain pattern, I use a lot of symbols that actually makes my password difficult to crack. Any password which has symbols is harder... a combination of letters, numbers and characters can make it difficult for someone to crack the password,” the 22-year-old said.
Some people, though, do not settle for good enough. Gulf News reader Necip Camcigil, makes sure he picks words that are as rare as possible. He also makes sure he never writes his passwords down. But does that make it difficult for him to remember it as well?
“Yes, I’m always forgetting it. I use the ‘forgot your password?’ option all the time. I have accepted that as a part of my life,” the 33-year-old said.
While he is aware that combining alphabets, numbers and special characters is a good strategy to create a password, he has stopped putting in as much effort as he used to in creating one.
“The only time I use a number is when the website requires me to use a number. Otherwise, I don’t. When they force me to do it, I always forget my password.”
