How to keep your passwords safe and secure

For example, never use the first line of your address or your pet’s name.

Numbers like your child’s birthday or your mobile number can be easy for fraudsters to guess

The most common passwords are '123456' and 'Password'. They may be easy to remember, but they’re also easy to guess.

Fraudsters often use software that tries to guess passwords. This software works by attempting thousands of passwords a minute, typically using words taken from the dictionary. Use a mixture of letters and numbers instead of words on their own.

Longer passwords are usually safer because they’re harder to guess. Try and make your password at least 8 characters in length. 

You could try a line from a song you know well, taking the first letter of each word. You can then change some of them to numbers, symbols, and different cases, so ’99 red balloons floating in the summer sky’ could be ‘99Rbf!tS$’.

Pick three random words and change some of the letters for capitals, if the site allows it also use other characters e.g. ‘$ealGl4ssExc!tment’.