Adding emojis to your passwords could make them almost twice as strong—and make them easier to remember. That's according to a top cybersecurity firm, which recently began urging Internet users to introduce the colourful icons as a way of improving their online security.
Although most people know that numbers, symbols, and special characters can all help strengthen a password, not everyone is aware that emojis can also be used on some websites.
READ MORE: Worst online passwords exposed - if your code is on this list, change it now
They're apparently not only easier to remember but much harder for hackers and other cybercriminals to guess.
Kaspersky's Stan Kaminsky argues that, because there are thousands of emojis available compared to only a handful of letters and numbers, they are much harder for hackers to guess or obtain.
Mr Kaminsky said: "When intruders try to brute-force a password containing letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, there are fewer than a hundred variations for each symbol they need to pick. But there are more than 3600 standardized emojis in Unicode, so adding one to your password forces hackers to go through around 3700 variants per symbol.
"So, in terms of complexity, a password made up of five different emoticons is equivalent to a regular password of nine characters while seven emojis is equivalent to a strong password on 13 'regular' characters."
He advises people to come up with a sentence and then enter it into an emoji translator. This will convert the password into a series of emojis which you can then use as a new, extra-secure password.
There are a few downsides to using emojis as a password, however. Firstly, not all websites allow you to actually do this, including popular email providers like Gmail and Outlook. So it isn't a fix-all solution. On top of that, typing out emojis is a bit of a faff and requires you to crack open the dedicated emoji keyboard.
But, if you have a good visual memory and can be bothered to type them out, emojis could just be a great solution. Just don't forget to keep extra security measures like two-factor authentication activated, as any password can ultimately be cracked by someone determined enough.