Professional way of setting Passwords

1. Use a minimum of eight characters; more characters are better, as long as you are comfortable remembering them are typing them.
2. Do not base the password on a dictionary word. Eg: redhat
3. use a variety of different types of characters; use at least three of the following
1. lower case letters
2. upper case letters (passwords are generally case sensitive)
3. numbers
4. punctuation and other special characters
4. avoid using your real name, login name or variations thereof

eg: with a login name of sally, a poor password would be s@lly.

5. Avoid using easy to determine personal information, such as your birthday, anniversary, etc.
6. avoid using formulas, such as 1+1=2
7. Avoid excessive complexity if it tempts you to perform such unsafe practice as writing the password onto a notepad near your monitor.