Many electric cooperative members manage important parts of their lives online. They pay electric bills, participate in efficiency programs, monitor energy use through member portals and receive outage alerts through co-op apps and websites. Protecting those accounts starts with a strong password.
With October recognized as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, it’s a good reminder that one of the easiest ways to protect yourself is by revisiting how you think about passwords. Many of the rules we learned about creating them are now outdated.
Mix in a capital letter. Add a number. Throw in a symbol like a dollar sign. We were told that a password full of strange characters was a strong password. It turns out that advice was only half right, and the half that got left out matters more than you might think.
Here’s the surprising truth: The length of your password protects you more than how complicated it is. A short password packed with symbols can be cracked by a computer in seconds. A longer password made of several unrelated words is far harder to break.
The reason comes down to math. Computers crack passwords by guessing, and modern ones try billions of combinations every second. Every extra character multiplies the guesses a hacker must make, far more than swapping an “a” for an “@” ever could.
Think of it like a bike lock. A short combination is quick to spin through, but a longer one simply has too many settings to try.
The nation’s top security experts agree. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which sets the standards many companies follow, now recommends longer passwords and has dropped the old rules that recommended a mix of symbols and numbers.
Why the change? Because those rules often backfire. When told to add symbols, people do predictable things, like ending with an exclamation mark. Hackers know these tricks and check for them first. The rules made passwords harder for humans to remember but easier for criminals to guess.
So, what should you do? Whether you are logging into your electric co-op’s member portal, your online banking account, healthcare provider or favorite shopping site, the same advice applies. Think in phrases, not single words.
A passphrase is just several words strung together, like “Sailboat lemon fire pillow.” The trick is to pick words that have nothing to do with each other. The stranger the mix, the better. Avoid song lyrics, common sayings or anything tied to you, since those are easier to guess. Aim for at least 15 characters when you can.
What about sites that still demand a number or a symbol? You don’t have to give up your passphrase. Just work the extra character into a spot you will remember, like “Sailboat7 lemon fire pillow.” Don’t simply tack a “1” or “!” onto the end. That’s the first thing criminals check.
A few more simple habits will keep you safe. Avoid personal details like your birthday, address or pet’s name, since those are easy for others to find. Use a different password for every account, including your electric co-op’s member portal.
Companies get hacked, and criminals try the stolen passwords on other sites, so one password should never unlock your whole life. If remembering them all feels like too much, a password manager can store them for you. And turn on multifactor authentication whenever it is offered, where a website texts a code to your phone or an app, adding an extra layer of security.
You may also start seeing passkeys. This newer option lets you sign in with your face, fingerprint or a PIN instead of a password. Because there is no password to steal or guess, passkeys are secure and worth using whenever offered.
As more services move online, good password habits are becoming an important part of everyday cybersecurity. You don’t need to be a technology expert to protect yourself. A longer password or passphrase is one of the simplest and most effective steps you can take. Pick a phrase you can remember, keep it unique for every account, and you will be much harder for criminals to target.
