How to create a secure password you can remember
Your computer, online banking, WIFI Router are only as secure as the password you decide to use to secure them. Are you guilty of having an insecure password? Is your password literally "password", your first pet or your kid's name? This article will help you understand what a secure password is and how to easily create them using simple guidelines and an easy to remember trick.
What is a secure password?
A secure password cannot be guessed easily by password cracking software or people. No password is 100% secure, but there are some general guidelines that you can follow make your password as secure as possible:
-not based on any dictionary words
Password cracking software will try to discover your password using words that are in dictionary files.
-includes uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols
Using a combination of these characters presents a more difficult challenge to crack the password then an all lowercase all character password.
-is different for each application/website that you use
Having the same password for every website is not a good practice because if your password is compromised then every site you access is potentially cracked.
-the more characters, the more secure
Try to use the maximum allowable characters on any given website to have the most security possible.
The problem with following all these rules is that it may be tough to remember your new ultra-secure password. A simple trick is to pick a sentence you will remember and turn the first letter of each word into your password.
For example: "I don't want to remember passwords ever again." Take the first letter of each word, change "to" for 2 and you have "Idw2rpea." If you want a different one for every site, you can use your sentence as a template and modify it for each site/application. Take your personal banking for example: "I don't want to remember Personal Banking passwords ever again!" becomes "Idw2rpPBpea!"
And there you have it, the password is not based on a dictionary word, it includes upper and lower case letters, it is different for each site, and is 12 characters long.
A free application called Keepass, will generate secure passwords for you and store them in a file on your computer. You will need to secure this file with, you guessed it, a secure password, so be sure and pick one that follows the rules above.
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Comments
Good article, I was actually trying to figure out a new way to format my passwords.
Take a look at this cartoon about secure passwords: http://xkcd.com/936/
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