When creating your password, make a password that is at least 10 characters long and use a word not found in a dictionary.
The More The Merrier!
The more characters a password contains, the better the security.
Do not use birthdays, names, or any kind of clues that can be guessed to crack your password.
An example of a strong password is Cvt78$?hX1587u .
An example of a weak password is iloveyou69ohyeah .
My point is to use a combination of numbers, capital and lowercase letters, and symbols (e.g. ?!$%*). Doing so will take most cracking software a lot of time, power, and money to crackyour password.
Adding Symbols will Make it 10X Harder to Crack
According to some researchers, using symbols and a combination of lower-case and capital letters can add a several years to crack a password.
In comparison, using words from a dictionary can take a matter of minutes to crack!
Never Share Your Password
Next, NEVER share your passwords with anyone. If you have to write it down on paper, keep the paper in a safe place and once you memorize it, burn the paper!
Furthermore, make sure your computer is safe from trojans, malware, or some kind of virus that can trace (keystroke logging) what you type on your keyboard. To ensure that your machine is safe, update your computer’s operating system, anti-virus software. Also use a good firewall such as this.
Make sure you’re not filmed writing your password, phished, or wire-tapped.
Use a Provider That Provides Extra Security Measures
Last but not least if you’re going to use a an email service, use gmail. I use gmail and it gives me peace of mind because of the additional security features it has in place such as 2 step verification. If you have an iphone or an android, use it together with Google Authenticator .
For more info.
http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en&;answer=175197
Share the word with the other members and play it safe.