Creating Strong Passwords You Can Remember

Thieves are getting bolder in their attempts to crack passwords. At the same time, the majority of folks do not even begin to have strong passwords that could deter would-be thieves!

And having a strong password ... but writing it down and taping it to your monitor is a very bad idea if anyone can access your computer at work or at home.

Before we discuss some easy methods for creating and remembering strong passwords, here are some important guidelines:

• Don't use your name, a family member's name, nicknames, or a pet's name


• Don't use your mother's maiden name or street address


• Don't use words that describe your job (e.g. computer) or your hobby (e.g. stamps)


• Don't use the same password for all your accounts


• Include capital letters and special characters in your passwords

There are two methods to creating strong passwords.

Method One

The first method is to choose a phrase that you can remember and use the first letter or first two letters of each word in the phrase. If your phrase is "We love baseball in the spring" - your password could be wlbits or welobainthsp. Better yet, make it WeLoBaInThSp or &wlbits**.

Decide on the method you will use - one letter, two letters, and which - if any - are capitalized, and use it for each phrase. Also decide which special characters you will use and where they will be in the password. Then, when you document a password for an account, just write a key word that will help you remember the phrase, along with the special characters. For the last example above, your password code could be &ball**. For the phrase "The neighbor's dog drives me nuts," you could write down %nuts# for a password of %tnddmn#.

Method Two

The second method involves choosing multiple words and 4-digit numbers that mean something to you but no one else would know. Then create passwords using one of the words followed by one of the numbers, with some special characters at the front, back, or middle. You can make many unique passwords this way. You remember the words by their first initial, and you remember the numbers with an acronym or short word.

Suppose two of the words you chose were last names of old childhood pals: Hamilton and Schwartz. And one number was an old pin (no longer used of course!) 3389 and another the street number of your first job 9920. You could document the password hamilton3389 as H-pin.

For greater security, add a special character or two. For a password of #schwartz9920%$, your code to yourself could be #S-job%$. If numbers are harder to remember, use five words and three numbers in your scheme.

Summary

It doesn't matter which method you use, but you NEED a method - especially as our use of the Internet increases each year. Create a spreadsheet that lists the account name (e.g. Amazon), the email you used to sign up with (it may be needed to log on as well), the userid, and the password code. Print a copy, save a backup copy to your thumb drive, and each time you add a new account and password, update the file and print a new copy. Give the document a file name of "scores" or "decorating" - in case others share your PC.

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