Passwords
Nearly every digital lock has two keys you need to open it:
Username (usually an email address)
and
Password
The username is easy. It's almost always your email address. In case you didn't know your email address is not case sensitive. For sending or receiving email it does not matter one bit if you capitalize or do not capitalize the address. Where you could run into trouble is capitalizing letters in an email address when you use it as a username for setting up an account on a website.
To stay out of trouble always enter email addresses in lowercase only.
Passwords are different. They are case sensitive and it very much matters if a letter is capitalized or not.
Example: pAsswOrd1 is completely different from PassWord1
When logging into an account you need to be absolutely exact entering your username and password. There is no such thing as "close enough" and your computer or phone has no ability to know what you meant to type only what you actually did type.
When making up a password for an account some websites have a set of rules you have to follow.
For example: "your password must be 8-12 characters and contain one number, one capital letter and one special character"
Following these rules an acceptable password would be: p@ss3Word
This example gets us 9 characters, one special character, one number and one capitalized letter.
Your number one consideration for password strength should be length. You can include all the specials, numbers and capitals you want but nothing beats length for password security. The longer the better. It may help to think of them as "passphrases" rather than "passwords." Consider using quotations, song lyrics, things your friends or family members may say a lot. Something memorable and long such as: "fourscoreandsevenyears" or "allfouroneandoneforall". Both of these are more secure than something unmemorable and short like: "@)26Mr3gY%".
To the tools hackers will use to try and break your password a character is a character is a character whether it's a letter a number or even a blank space so the more characters you use the harder your password is to break.
There are several websites that will let you test the strength of passwords and passphrases.
Example: https://bitwarden.com/password-strength/
Give it a try and watch as the time-to-break jumps exponentially as your password gets longer even though it may seem relatively simple.
How will you keep track of all these passwords? The preferred method is with a password manager such as Roboform, Bitwarden, LastPass and others. There will be a learning curve but for the best security and protection against ever forgetting or losing a password this will be the best option.
If you insist on writing your passwords down with pen and paper do yourself a favor and write the date next to the password. Also, be very clear about what is capitalized and what is not. Be clear about any zeros or letter O's. Be clear about 1's and lower case L's. As you write them down you may think you'll remember these details but, trust me, you won't.
