Installation Manual

Secure Password Thinking
Any password you create for Joomla!, MySQL, Apache, or in fact any passwords you ever create should be
made as secure as possible.
Typically this would mean:
● using a minimum of 6 characters -the more the better but 8-10 should be an ideal
● a mixture of upper and lower case alphabet characters, numbers, and permitted special characters
for example -, _, *, $, !, %, although the use of these may be governed by the host settings on
shared or virtual hosted, remote servers
● do not use easily identifiable passwords for example, birthdays, children's or family names or words
that could be easily associated with you
● in fact try not to use real words at all, replace letters with their numeric equal so the word ocean
could become 0c34n (yes – I know it is a real word and there are only 5 characters but it is just an
example) try 0c34n!c – and no do not now use that either
● another way is to think entirely off-the-wall. Think of a favourite novel for example, The Hitch-hikers
Guide to the Galaxy, and then take say the first and last letter from each word giving a sequence of
letters (as indicated by the underscores):
Example 1. t e h s g e t o t e g y
this clearly means absolutely nothing but it could still be traced – eventually – by a determined
cracker so let us mix it up a bit more:
Example 2. T 3 h $ 9 3 t 0 T 3 g Y
but you can now see that it would be a pretty illogical logic that would need to be applied to even
come close to cracking that and when the additional security features of the various platforms is then
laid over the top of this – we would not want to say it is impossible to crack, but they would take a
very long time, and of course you should regularly change your passwords anyway.
● if you keep a written record of your passwords always ensure they too are kept secure and safely out
of the way of prying eyes
● despite the temptation, try to avoid using the same password for all your various access
requirements, both at home and at work
Note: The spaces are included in the two examples solely for clarity and should not be included and in fact
spaces are generally not accepted in passwords
The Joomla! User Documentation Team 13 The Joomla! v1.5 Installation Manual