The first barrier with which protect any smartphone against possible gossips (or thieves) to take your device without permission is to set an unlock pattern, PIN or password. Although even with this, some criminals manage to gain access to the devices.
And it is that, regardless of whether you have fingerprint recognition or facial detection, you must always have a backup code configured. In this sense the pattern and numeric passwords are often more vulnerable. In fact, if you unlock your mobile near another person, they can see it relatively easily. However, there are ways to make them more secure security elements (worth the redundancy).
How to create a secure unlock code
According to the usual security advice for choosing a password, it must meet certain requirements in terms of length and variety of characters. In fact, Ideally, a key would be so complicated that you don’t even remember it yourself, although it is not practical. Therefore, placing ourselves in an intermediate point is the best.
So, we started discarding codes composed only of numbers or only letters. It must be a password (literally it appears as “password” when configuring it in the settings) and also have the following features:
- make it alphanumericmixing uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers and even other characters such as question marks and/or punctuation.
- make it long. As tedious as it may be to write it later, it is the best way to ensure that it is safe.
- Does not describe “obvious” aspects of you. See your name, surname, telephone number or address as bad examples.
- make it unique and do not use it also as a password for other services. Although it may be similar to make it easier for you to learn, try not to make it identical.
- If you point it, be careful and especially if you do it on paper. In that case, try to keep it safe, although it is best to store it digitally in a password manager.
It is fully understandable that with these tips it is difficult to remember the password. However, you can help yourself with words that, although simple, become complex to guess as a password. And mix them.
For example, a strange, but understandable and memorable phrase could be “I like popcorn with tuna and coffee.” You can use it as a password with something like “?me2LIKEPOPCORN1withTUNA,andCOFFEE!”. Obviously it seems complicated at first by inserting capital letters, symbols and numbers, but in the long run you end up getting used to it.
if you want to know other systems with which to create passwords that are easy to remember and difficult for strangers to guessthe method of Marcos Merino, Genbeta’s colleague, can be interesting.
As we also said at the beginning, so that this security method is not in vain, try to do not add a facial recognition system that is not effective. The best ones are those that have 3D sensors for recognition, see the iPhone for examples. And it is that those who only take advantage of the camera tend to be more insecure when they can fool them with a simple photograph.
Another advice to apply is that change this password from time to time. There is no estimated time to do it, but for security you could set yourself a periodic reminder that, for example, notifies you every 6 months or every year to change this password. In fact, this is convenient to also apply to the passwords you use to access other services such as your online banking, email account, social networks, etc.