There are bad people out there.

All passwords should be of sufficient strength so as to make it hard on hackers to crack into your website or email accounts.

Our recommendations for ensuring that your passwords are relatively strong:

• 8 or more characters long.
• at least one capital letter,
• at least one lower-case letter
• at least one numeral 0 to 9
• at least one special character such as ! # * & $ (some systems limit what characters may be used)
• no real words or names (or parts, like the first 4 letters of your last name)
• no meaningful numbers (like your birthday or street address)

Of course, you also have to keep your passwords secure so no one unauthorized can get their hands on them. You should also change relevant passwords in the event of a suspected hacking (security breach) or if personnel leave the company.