Passwords. The true bane of our existence now that the internet is part of our daily lives. Creating a password that is easy to remember AND secure can cause you headaches and problems unforeseen. You could use a password generator, but again, you want one that is easy to remember and one that you don't have to keep a sticky note next to your keyboard. What most people do is create a text document somewhere on their computer with all their passwords in it. Maybe it's even named "Passwords.txt." Not good. Worse is using a password using your kids' names, pets, street you grew up on, mother's maiden name, etc. These are all vulnerable to being guessed and therefore, unsecured.
Let's take a moment and look at a new way to create your own secure hard to guess passwords. Passwords that can be remembered in a moment. What we will do is create an individual Password Convention which will allow you to remember numerous passwords that you use every day.
CAVEAT: You want to create separate and unique passwords for those places where you keep or track your finances. Banks, stock accounts, even your local computer, should all be unique. What we're dealing with here are the dozens of other websites that require a password*.
STEP 1: Choose two unrelated words. No, not Butch and Sundance. Not your kids names, your pets, your mother's maiden name, your middle name or any word which means something to you personally. Best way: open a dictionary at random and find two unrelated words 4-6 letters in length (You can choose three if you want, it's your password.
Example: For our example I'm going to choose "crutch" and "picket" - I chose these at random as I wrote this.
Step 1A) Decide where to place the Capital letters. Common sense says CrutchPicket, but you can easily select something different to keep it more secure. Such as cRuthpIcket
STEP 2: Choose an offset amount from -5 to +5. This is for choosing a special character
Example:. For our example, I'm going to choose +1.
STEP 3: Choose one of the following: Words, Letters, Vowels, or Consonants.
Example: Letters
STEP 4: Location. Center, left or Right. Most passwords now require a number. Location tells you where this number will be placed in your password.
Example: Center
Using the examples above, we're created a password crutch picket with an offset of +1, and Letters, with the number in the center. Let's see how this all works together.
Website: Ebay.com.
Ebay has a total of 4 letters in it's name (EBAY). So using the example convention, we create the password as
cRutch4%pIcket
The two words crutch and picket, capitalized as we chose above, with the number 4 in the Center and a special character +1 from that number 4 (which is the Percent Symbol "%").
Website: Yahoo.com
Yahoo has 5 letters so the password would be cRutch5^pIcket (The offset for the special character is +1 from the number 5, or the carat symbol "^")
A convention created in this manner is usable on any site, at any time, because it is secure, and random. You need only memorize the convention to create or remember any password at any time. (Again, the caveat, it's only as secure as you are about sharing or giving out your passwords. The general rule here is: DON'T.) Each of the components in this password convention is chosen by YOU at random, and there is no way anyone will know or guess any part of this without you sharing it with them. BUT, and this is the takeaway, there is no need to write down a password created with a convention such as this because you need only remember the convention and the password is there.
===
* A note about the convention: When creating a convention, you can add your own level of security to the above, by having one convention for everyday sites, and another for banks, stocks etc. You merely add a new level to your Convention. Such as doubling the number, or adding a set of initials to it. In this way you have a Standard Convention, and the Advanced Convention - both easy to remember once created.
* A note about the convention: When creating a convention, you can add your own level of security to the above, by having one convention for everyday sites, and another for banks, stocks etc. You merely add a new level to your Convention. Such as doubling the number, or adding a set of initials to it. In this way you have a Standard Convention, and the Advanced Convention - both easy to remember once created.
