The ability to generate sturdy passwords that are resistant to hackers might be considered an art. Creating passwords is especially challenging thanks to the increasing number of websites and devices that require you to log in or register using your own secret code.

As frustrating as the need to create passwords may seem, the security of your own information and your clients’ details require you to put some serious thought into this critical process.

Here are two simple, but necessary steps to creating a strong password:

1. Learn the components of a robust password
Any good password should include a capital letter, a symbol and a number, according to Roger Miranda, president of Evident IT, an information technology consulting company in Winnipeg.

Your password should be at least eight characters long, or as many characters as the site will allow.

Simple words, such as your favourite city or information that is easy for others to discover, such as your birthday, should be avoided. Another popular — but ineffective — method is to use symbols and numbers to replace letters of the alphabet within familiar words.

For example, many people will use a dollar sign as an “S” or replace “L” with “1,” Miranda says.

“You think you’re being smart,” he says, “but that’s one of the first things [hackers will] try to crack.”

2. Customize your password for each site
Ideally, you should create a separate password for each website or program that requires a log-in.

“The benefit there is that if one system gets compromised,” Miranda says, “the other systems don’t get compromised.”

Miranda suggests a strategy for creating individual passwords that are both strong and relatively easy to remember. Create a base password that includes a capital letter, a symbol and a number. When you are signing up for a new program, add the first two or three letters of that site’s name to the beginning or end of your password.

For example, you are creating a new Microsoft Outlook email account. Take a strong base password, such as “13Travels%” and add “Out” so that it will read “13Travels%Out.” If you were creating an account for Investment Executive‘s website, you would use “13Travels%Inv.”

While it is not an ironclad system, it is an easy way to create strong, unique passwords without your having to memorize dozens of individual codes. Miranda uses this technique to protect his passwords, and they have never been compromised.

This is the first part in a two-part series on password security. Next: Keeping your passwords safe.