How to Choose a Strong Password for Your Mac Encryption Software

Any encryption is only as strong as the password that protects it. You can use the most powerful encryption software for Mac available, but if your password is weak, it's vulnerable to a brute-force or dictionary attack. If your password is broken, the money you spent buying Mac encryption software was wasted, and even more important your sensitive data is at risk.

Some of the encryption software for Mac on our side-by-side comparison comes with features to help you craft a secure password, such as a strength meter or a password-suggestion generator, but most do not. So, you're usually on your own to choose a password that strikes that delicate balance between being easy to remember but complicated enough to be safe against hacking attacks.

Here are a few tips to help you pick a secure password to encrypt files on your Mac.

1. Don't use words found in the dictionary The importance of this cannot be overstated because words in the dictionary are highly susceptible to what is called a dictionary attack. It's exactly what it sounds like; hackers bombard your encryption with every word in the dictionary. The likelihood of your encryption being broken is very high if you choose a word like "cherry" or "bird."
2. The longer the better Having a password with eight or more characters goes a long way to keeping your sensitive data secure. The trade off is that it can be more difficult to remember.
3. Make it complex Simply using the alphabet isn't enough. There are many more characters available to you. Sprinkle numbers, punctuation and other symbols into your password to enhance its security. When you use letters, numbers and symbols, it makes your password almost impossible to guess.
4. Keep it memorable This may seem contradictory, but having a strong password you can't remember can spell disaster when you use encryption software for Mac.

A good method for constructing a secure password that you can remember is to create a mnemonic device and derive your password from that.

For example, say your favorite move is "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn." First, make the title all one word:

startrekii:thewrathofkahn

That's a decent password; it has a lot of characters and a punctuation mark. But it can still be guessed. Change it up a little bit by swapping out some of the letters with symbols or numbers that you can remember, such as replacing s with $, t with 7, A with ^ and e with *.

$7^rtr*kii:7h*wr^7hofk^hn

It's getting better, but all the letters are lowercase. Most passwords are case sensitive, so change some of the letters to uppercase.

$7^rTR*kIi:7h*Wr^7hOfK^hN

Now you have a password that's memorable and highly unlikely to be broken by a hacker using either a brute-force or dictionary attack. You may need to practice typing it a few times in a plain text editor to make sure that you have it down before you plug it into your Mac file encryption software. But after you've built that muscle memory, it will come out like water from a tap.

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