#1
Ideally, your passwords are six characters or longer and you can remember them. It’s a bad idea to make it memorable by using personal information — like your name, your child’s name, your pet’s name, your or your child’s birth date — or by using words in the dictionary.
#2
Obviously, you should keep your passwords private. But keep in mind that you also need to be quiet about any personal tidbits you use in passwords or the security questions that some sites use to authenticate you. Identity thieves are out on the Web looking for this stuff. It’s why Facebook has become a big target lately. And just a week ago on Twitter, there was a major hullabaloo over a game in which people were creating “porn names” from their first pet’s name and first teacher’s last name that quickly morphed into a likely effort to phish pet and street names.
