Very often, you are forced to use special characters, numbers, and uppercase and lowercase letters in a password. How Are Passwords Cracked?

Burr recommended creating passwords that were essentially weird nonsense words, chock-full of special characters and occasional capital letters and numbers.

iChat AIM passwords cannot be longer than 16 characters MacFixIt reader Jonathan reports that AOL Instant Messenger passwords cannot be longer than 16 letters, despite iChat's acceptance of ...

And special characters? Frequently exclamation marks. CMU's password meter will offer advice for strengthening a password like "ILoveYou2!" -- which meets the standard requirements.

NIST recommends, at least, a random, complex eight-character password employing numbers, both uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as special symbols.

Use a Mix: Combine uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. Avoid Common Words: Steer clear of easily guessable words and phrases. Length Matters: Aim for passwords ...

Sick of 15-character passwords? Microsoft is going password-less, starting now. Microsoft is saying good riddance to the traditional password, and we're here for it.

Ultimately though, security is all about layering defense and passwords alone should not be relied upon. So while Google has a minimum password length of eight characters, it also "checks where ...