Password security

Creating a secure password is crucial to protecting your accounts from unauthorised access.

• Long passwords: The longer a password is, the more difficult it is to crack. A secure password should be at least 12 characters long, preferably 16 or more. At mail.de, we require at least 12 characters for newly created passwords.

• Use of upper and lower case letters: A secure password should contain both upper and lower case letters to increase its complexity. The use of upper and lower case letters is mandatory at mail.de.

• Include numbers and special characters: Incorporate numbers (0-9) and special characters (e.g. $# *-_.:,;()[]{}/&!?) to make your password even more secure. Both numbers and special characters are mandatory components of newly created passwords at mail.de.

In addition, you should consider the following measures when creating your passwords:

• Avoid simple words: Do not use common phrases such as ‘password’, “123456”, ‘qwerty’ or names. These passwords are very easy to guess using so-called dictionary attacks.

• Avoid personal information: Avoid using personal information such as your date of birth, telephone number or the names of family members or pets. This information is usually very easy to find out and can therefore be classified as simple words.

• Avoid reusing passwords: Do not use the same password for multiple accounts. If one of your accounts is hacked, attackers could use the same password to access your other accounts.

• Use a password manager: It is, of course, difficult to remember a unique, complex password for every account. However, a password manager can help you to store secure passwords safely and even generate them automatically. This makes it easy to use a different, strong password for each account without having to think of or remember them.

• Update your passwords regularly: Change your passwords from time to time, especially for important accounts such as email, online banking and social media. This ensures that potential security gaps are closed if a password is leaked at some point.

Further information can be found, for example, at the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) on the topic of "Secure passwords".