Everyone knows that the keys we use for our home, car and other valuables must meet strict quality requirements and that only reputable parties can make them. If you tell them you're making your own keys after a burglary, you won't want to pay out insurance, the police won't deal with your case and those around you will laugh at you.

In the digital world, we also use keys. Such keys are called passwords. Just like regular keys, making a good digital key is not easy. A good password meets the following three quality requirements:

• Long. The longer a password, the better. To find out your password, someone can try out all combinations (just like a combination lock). The more characters, the more combinations, and the longer it takes to find out your password. Today, passwords must be at least 12 characters long.
• random. If you can guess the rest of the password based on 1 or more characters in a password, fewer combinations need to be tried, making it easier to find out your password. That's why words and names in a password are out of the question. Each character in a password must therefore stand alone and have no relation to other characters in a password.
• Unique. Each password must be different. So you can't reuse passwords on multiple accounts. If you do so, you run the risk that a password once stolen will provide access to multiple accounts, with all the consequences that entail.

Can you invent and remember multiple passwords that meet these requirements? Just give it a try!

Difficult, isn't it? No wonder we can never get it right with passwords! The theory about strong passwords is just really hard to put into practice. Isn't it strange that we keep making our own digital keys anyway?

Now you also understand why so many people are being hacked digitally. Digital thieves (hackers) simply have it very easy because the quality of our digital keys is insufficient.

Passwords can also be created using software. Such passwords meet all the previously mentioned quality requirements without you having to invent or remember them. So easy and safe!

Passwords will remain around for a while, but by no longer inventing them ourselves, we are making it quite difficult for hackers.