Creative Guide for Teachers & Parents

SUBJECT & DISCUSSION IDEA #4 - Pick and protect the perfect password

Your information is only as safe as your password. Without a strong password your online information is vulnerable to being accessed by others.

The perfect password should:

• Be strong (8 characters or more is recommended). The more characters you use, the stronger your password will be.
• Use a variety of characters. Using a combination of letters, numbers and symbols makes the password more complex and therefore harder to guess.
• Be changed regularly to reduce the likelihood of someone accessing your personal information.

Typical password mistakes include:

• Using sequences or repeated characters. This makes it easier for others to guess the password.
• Using personal information, such as any part of your name, birthday, social security number, or similar information about your loved ones.
• Using the same password for many different systems.
• Revealing your password to others, for any reason.
• Typing passwords on computers that you do not control or own because others may be able to extract your password from that computer after you use them.

Discussion idea:

Katie is really excited when she receives a mobile phone for her 14th birthday. She is required to choose a password and chooses 141414. She gives all her friends the password so they can use the phone too. When she gets home she changes her computer password to 141414 as well, so she won't confuse the two passwords in the future. Discuss Katie's choice of a password, her decision to give the password to her friends and her decision to make her computer and phone password the same.