Essential Tips to Keep Your PC Safe

5. Choose a strong password

This is one of the most important steps to take in securing your computer or other accounts. A strong password will help keep your data safe not just from hackers, but also in the unfortunate circumstance that your laptop is stolen.

We recommend you pick a password with a minimum of 12 characters, but more is even better. Your password should include capital letters, lowercase letters, punctuation, numbers, and special characters. You should also avoid dictionary words, pets names, birthdays, or any other personal info that people could easily glean from a social networking site. Also try and add some variety by using numbers in place of letters (3=E, 5=S).

If you want to be especially secure, use a different password for every account you have. Develop a formula for creating unique passwords. Here's an example:

Start with a base, just as an example we'll use "home." Swap a few letters for numbers: h0m3. Then add the first letter of the service (e-mail, IM) or site (Facebook, banks, etc) the password is for and the number of letters in the name to the front -- we'll use the generic e-mail: e5h0m3. Then tack on the middle letter of the service name and the number of letters in your last name to the end of the password: e5h0m3a6. Lastly, capitalize a couple of those letters: e5H0m3A6.

Now you have a seemingly random password that should be easy for you to remember (if you can just remember the above 'system'). Just pick a longer base word than "home." You can also use a password management program like KeePass, 1Password, or RoboForm to help you keep track of all those passwords in case you have trouble memorizing them.


Bonus tip
Backup, backup, backup!

Sometimes, despite your best efforts, a virus or other nasty piece of malware can make its way into you PC and screw everything up. Should you live in total fear? Not at all -- as long as you backup your most important data on a regular basis, then you don't have to worry about viruses ruining your whole computer (or life). See our guide on backing up your computer for how to make sure that even the worst case scenario isn't that bad. Also, follow our tips on how to clean your PC and save your data if your computer is infected by a virus.