If I had a nickel for every password I have to memorize, I would have a pile of nickels this (holds out hand) high. That’s a lot of nickels. I also get asked regularly for good ideas for passwords. Something easy to remember, but hard for other people to figure out. Ahh, therein lies the secret. How is that done?While everyone has a different method for remembering obscure codes, there are some pointers that can help you secure your digital world.First of all, let’s cover the password itself. How do you balance the secret / secure dichotomy that is ‘password’?
- DO NOT use names of anyone you know. That includes children, pets, your car, middle names, nicknames, maiden names, addresses, or the title of the poster hanging right behind your monitor.
- DO NOT use words in the dictionary unless they are accompanied by numbers and characters.
- DO NOT use your login name as your password. Some systems systematically restrict this anyhow.
- DO use a password that is constructed rather than remembered.
- DO use characters like ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) _ + – = as long as they are allowed with the system.
- DO use numbers, especially ones that don’t mean anything.
- DO slice up words so they no longer look like real words. Interject the gaps with characters or numbers.
- When it comes to password reminders, DO NOT use the real answer. How many people know the town you were born in, or your mother’s maiden name? As long as you can remember the silly answer you gave, you don’t have to answer the password reminder question truthfully!
- NEVER EVER EVER write your passwords down, or keep them on your computer except in an encrypted file.
Constructing your password:
- Have a theme. Depending on your interests, you have mountains of resources to draw from. Having a theme for all your passwords can help you restrict the avenues for recall. Here are a few that may prompt you to think up your own ‘theme’: Sports teams / players, Favourite movies, Favourite actors, Foods, Industry Terms, Beverages. Let’s say you picked Favourite movies, and for the password in question, your favourite movie is Great Expectations .
- Pick a number. At this point, you can be something obvious like your age, your spouses age, the numbers in your postal code, your house number or something similar. Let’s say it’s 34.
- Pick some characters. You can surround the number with parentheses, such as (34) or [34], or quotes "34" or make it an amount, like 34% or $34. I’m going with (34)
- Now, chop the name you picked from #1 in two and rearrange it. In our example, it might look like tationsExpec (drop the Great, the password might be too long).
- Now, put the number in the middle – tations(34)Expec
- Not only do you have a password that would be hard to guess, it can’t be calculated by any algorithm or constructed from words in the dictionary.
Now you have to try to remember this password! The above system helps, but what if you need a number of passwords for different things? How do you remember WHICH password goes where?I happen to have a Blackberry which has a fantastic Password Keeper in it. Not only would someone have to get hold of my Blackberry ("cold dead fingers", and all that) but they would have to guess the password for my Password Keeper. Mwahaha!If you are Blackberry-less, there are a number of programs that will secure your passwords for you. Searching www.versiontracker.com for ‘password’ will turn up some.This may seem like a long way to go just to secure a password, but remember that in many cases, you are securing a lot more than your daily collection of spam from your college pals. Passwords you use may be securing your banking information, online shopping login, business website, ecommerce software, or the hardware itself on your network.While passwords alone are not enough for complete network security, having a secure password is a good place to start.
