Passwords

As systems have matured over many years, and security has become much more important, advice about choosing the “best” password continues to evolve.

Password generator

Choose a 12, 13 or 16 character, secure password that’s easy to remember.

Number of passwords to generate:

12 character passwords are made from KS1/2 word lists of 3, 4 and 5 characters (with no inserted characters or substitutions) - used for KS2 pupil, online learning platform accounts.

13 character passwords use a combination of more complex words from much longer lists, with special caracters & digits - making them significantly more secure

16 character passwords use the same process as the 13 character version except they use lists of longer words

The 16 character passwords will take 94 quadrillion years (94,000,000,000,000,000) to crack using brute force and, with over 2 trillion (2,166,494,761,000 ish) possible unique combinations, the probability of duplication is 0.000,000,000,000,46 : 1 (apparently).

Regularly changing passwords

Don’t! Some systems still require passwords to be changed regularly but this is no longer considered best practice as it often leads users to choose weak passwords or resort to writing them all down (see some of the links below).

Choose a good password and only change it if you think someone else might have discovered it.

Password apps

There are lots of apps that manage, create, store and enter passwords. aWallet Cloud (no affiliation) is simple, securely stores your information and automatially backs it up to the cloud (Dropbox or Google Drive). There is a free version but the small one-off cost of backing up to the cloud is invaluable:

Android: Apple: