Security
Passwords that actually protect you
Length beats cleverness, and never reusing a password beats both. The small number of habits that make a real difference, and the tool that makes them easy.
Length over cleverness
A long password of ordinary words is far harder to guess than a short one full of symbols. Four or five unrelated words strung together are easy to remember and very hard to crack. Substituting 0 for o or adding an exclamation mark at the end adds almost nothing.
Never reuse one
The single most common way accounts are taken over is a password reused from another site that was breached. If your fourdigits password is also your email or shopping password, a leak anywhere puts everything at risk. Every account should have its own.
Let a password manager do it
Nobody can remember a different long password for every account, and nobody has to. A password manager creates and remembers them for you, behind one strong password of your own. Most phones and browsers now include one, and dedicated apps work across every device.
Then add a second factor
Even a perfect password can be phished. Turning on an authenticator app means that anyone who learns your password still cannot sign in without the six-digit code on your phone. Do it for your email and exchange as well as for fourdigits: those are the accounts that unlock everything else.