How to Write Amounts in Words on Checks and Invoices
A guide to writing money amounts in words on checks, invoices and contracts — in English and Arabic — with cents and sub-units, the “only” format and worked examples.
Every year billions of passwords leak from breached websites and companies, compiled into massive lists attackers use against email, banking and social accounts. The uncomfortable truth: most account takeovers need no technical genius — they exploit weak or reused passwords. Here's how to protect yourself with a few simple steps.
How attackers crack passwords
- Dictionary attacks: trying common words like password, qwerty and 123456, plus names and birthdays with simple tweaks such as an added digit or symbol.
- Credential stuffing: taking your email and password from one breach and automatically trying them on hundreds of other sites. That's why reusing passwords is the most dangerous mistake you can make.
- Brute force: trying every possibility; modern GPUs can test billions of guesses per second against some hash types.
- Phishing: a message that looks like it's from your bank asking you to “confirm your details” on a fake page.
What makes a password strong?
Strength is measured in entropy — how many guesses it would take. The most important factor isn't fancy symbols but length and randomness:
| Password | Approx. time to crack |
|---|---|
| john1990 | Under a second (it's in the lists) |
| P@ssw0rd! | Seconds (a known pattern) |
| 8 random mixed characters | Hours to days |
| 16 random mixed characters | Millions of years |
| 6 random words | Millions of years — and memorable |
Note that swapping letters for look-alike symbols (a → @, o → 0) adds almost nothing, because cracking tools try those substitutions automatically.
The right approach: a random password for every account
The practical solution is a long, random, unique password for each account. Since nobody can memorize dozens of them, use a password manager — an app that stores them encrypted and fills them in for you. Good options include Bitwarden (free and open source) and 1Password, as well as the managers built into Chrome, Safari and Firefox. You only need to remember one strong master password.
To create passwords, use our Password Generator. It relies on your browser's secure random generator and never sends anything over the internet.
Passphrases: strength you can remember
For your master password or computer login, try a passphrase of 5–6 random words, like Maple-rocket-velvet-orbit-ruby-42. Its length makes it very strong, while real words make it far easier to remember and type than random symbols. The key is that the words are chosen randomly — not a famous quote or song lyric.
Two-factor authentication: your second line of defense
Even the strongest password can be phished. Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) for important accounts: email first (it's the recovery key to everything else), then banking and social media. Prefer an authenticator app such as Google Authenticator or Microsoft Authenticator over SMS, or passkeys where available.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Using the same password on more than one site.
- Using personal details: names, birthdays, phone numbers, children's names.
- Storing passwords in phone notes or an unencrypted text file.
- Sharing passwords over chat or email. If you must send something secret, encrypt it first with Encrypt Text and send the password through a different channel.
- Ignoring breach notifications: if a service reports a breach, change that password immediately.
A 30-minute action plan
- Install a password manager and give it a strong passphrase.
- Change your email password to a random 16-character one and enable 2FA.
- Repeat for banking and social media.
- Then update the rest gradually, whenever you next log in.
Half an hour today can save you weeks of trying to recover a hacked account.