Having a secure password is critical to the security of your Information Services. Neglecting to create a strong password policy increases the chances of unauthorized access or compromised data. The SANS institute suggests that a strong password policy will typically include the following characteristics:
- Contain a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, punctuation, numbers, and symbols.
- Contain at least 12-14 characters.
- Be unique from other accounts owned by the user.
- Never include dictionary words.
- Never include patterns of characters.
- Never use information that is or might become publicly associated with the user of the account.
- Never use passwords which consist wholly of any simple combination of the aformentioned weak components.
Additionally, you can navigate to the Hostek Password Generator to generate a secure password.
You can read more about strong password policy here from the SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security) Institute.