Strong Passwords — What Actually Matters Is Not What You Think

Replacing letters with numbers — "p@ssw0rd" instead of "password" — feels clever but does not fool modern cracking tools at all. What actually makes a password strong is length, not complexity. A random four-word phrase like "correct horse battery staple" is orders of magnitude harder to crack than a short, complex password like "Tr0ub4d!r".

The best approach: use a password manager to generate truly random passwords of twenty characters or more for every account. For the few passwords you must memorize — your master password, your device login — use a long passphrase of unrelated words. Never use personal information like birthdays, pet names, or addresses. And never reuse a password across accounts — one breach should not compromise everything.