How to keep your passwords out of the wrong hands
There's little point having a cast-iron password that takes trillion of years for a computer to crack if you let criminals pinch it from under your nose. The three main ways passwords find their way into the wrong hands are through phishing, malware and companies who don't do enough to keep your information safe. Creating different strong passwords for every account will limit the damage if your personal details gets leaked.
How to create a strong password
Pick a memorable phrase that you won't need to write down (e.g. thisisareallylongpassword). That's it! Despite the fact that many websites insist you use a mix of character types (e.g. upper case, lower case, numbers or symbols) to make your password secure, length is the easiest way to make passwords practically unbreakable.
If you do have to create a password that includes a mix of characters and has a limited character length (as some online services insist), another idea is to choose the initial letters of words in a line from a favourite song or poem, and replace some of the letters with characters that look similar. For example, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? becomes S1ctt@5d?. If you do need to write it down, make sure you keep it in a secure place away from prying eyes.
How to create a different password for every account
The simplest way to create a different password for each new login you set up is to add extra characters to the end or beginning of your core password. If you're worried you won’t be able to remember each one, it's perfectly safe to note the extra characters down, provided you don’t write down the core password too.
There is also a wide variety of free open-source and commercial password manager programs available for download, such as KeePass, Apple Keychain, LastPass or 1Password. Many have handy extra features such as the ability to generate truly random and almost unbreakable passwords at the click of a button.