I just ran across Microsoft.com’s strong password checker, which is a little Web-based app that lets you type a password or passphrase and it tells you its relative strength. It’s pretty nice and worth bookmarking.

Why is a strong password important? Simple - because the simpler it is, the easier it is for someone to “brute-force” attack. That’s a term that means they take a program that uses common terms, words and phrases to try to figure out your password by trying it over and over until it works. Strong passwords are complex in the variety of character types, are longer in size, and don’t use dictionary or other predictable, common terms.

Links:

• Microsoft Strong Password Checker
• Creating Strong Passwords article (I agree with most of what it says, but not all - suggesting blank passwords? Whaaat?)