Some tips.

Your passwords are the keys you use to access your personal information that you have stored on your computer and in your online accounts.  You use them every day.  From a security perspective, do you have good passwords? 

Researchers have found that that about 20 percent of users pick passwords from a relatively small pool of 5,000 commonly used passwords.  Hackers can break into many accounts just by trying the most common passwords.

Because of the availability of fast computers and speedy networks, hackers can fire off thousands of password guesses per minute.  There are also hacker programs that will try every possible password until it finds yours.  Some Web sites try to thwart the attackers by freezing an account for a certain period of time if too many incorrect passwords are typed.  Experts say, however, that the crooks simply learn to game the system, by making guesses at an acceptable rate.  It is just a matter of how long it takes.

Like burglars, hackers will break into the easiest targets.  Making your passwords more complex may make it less likely you will be a victim.

Some Web sites force users to mix letters, numbers and even symbols in their passwords.  The more complex the password, the longer it takes to crack it.  Other sites, like Twitter, prevent people from picking common passwords.  There are sites that require you to change your password every thirty or forty-five days.

Experts offer the following advice in creating strong passwords:

Make it lengthy, the longer the better.  Each character that you add to your password increases the protection that it provides many times over. Your passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or longer is ideal.

Combine letters, numbers, and symbols.  The greater the variety of characters that you have in your password, the harder it is to guess.  Use the full keyboard.  Your password will be much stronger if you choose from all the symbols on the keyboard, including punctuation marks, and, any symbols unique to your language (like umlauts.)

Use words and phrases that are easy for you to remember, but difficult for others to guess.  Hackers are not generally likely to know your exact birth date.  Mixing those numbers with your favorite quotes or sayings can be effective and still be easy to remember.

In the perfect secure world, a user would have a different complex password for every Web site she or he visits and store each password only in his or her head.  However, unless you are the Rainmaker or only visit one or two sites, this is not an easily doable practice.  Most of us are simply overwhelmed by the sheer number of passwords we have to remember in this networked age.  Voice mail user IDs, ATM pin numbers, Internet passwords, and office security codes drown us in a flood of character requirements.

Yes, they did have geeks in 1984.

One of the worst things you can do is to keep a list of your passwords on your computer.  If a hacker breaks into your computer they can search for password files.  Keeping a manual list on paper may sound old school, but it is safer.  Do not keep this written list where others can find it and do not let the location be known.  The movie “War Games,” which was made in the 1980’s, allowed the Mathew Broderick character to break into his school’s computer and change his grades because he knew where the school administrator kept her written record of her password.