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3 November 2010 - Using a Very Strong Password
Many of our customers and friends have had their social networking pages hijacked or compromised in one way or another. It is so important now to use a strong password that can not be easily guessed, but it’s also important to be able to remember your password! It’s also important to change your passwords frequently. The question I hear time and again is: “How do I choose a password that I can remember but others can’t easily guess?”
It’s Easy!
Well, it is possible to pick a very strong password that is also easy for you to remember. The keys to a strong password are:
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· Use upper and lower case letters
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· Use symbols
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· Use letters
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· Use at least 8 characters
If you set up some standards for yourself, you’ll always remember what the password is for any site!
How to do it:
Here is the format for your new password:
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· Your passwords will always start with two or three commonly used characters on your keyboard. I.E. !@#$%^&*()-_+=<>?/{}|
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· The next four to six characters will be the name of the website. I.E. Google becomes “goog” or “google”, Facebook become “face” or “facebo”, Microsoft becomes “micr” or “micros”, etc. (If a website is less than four characters long, add “com” or “org” or “biz”, etc., to the end.)
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· For certain letters, substitute a character. For example: a=@, e=3, h=4, i=1, o=0, s=5
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· Decide which letter will always be capitalized. For example you can capitalize the first vowel, or the second consonant, or the last letter.
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· Your passwords will always end with two or three commonly used characters from your keyboard. I.E. !@#$%^&*() -_+=<>?/{}|
· Your password will end up being eight to twelve characters in length.
Example 1:
Here’s an example of what a short password (i.e. eight characters) for my Twitter account might look like:
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· I’ve chosen to start my password with #*
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· Twitter = twit
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· I replace the “I” with a “1”
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· I capitalize the second letter, so “w” becomes “W”
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· I end my password with &)
· This makes my password for my Twitter account “ #*tW1t&) ”
Other examples are:
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· My password for my MSN account would be “ #*m1Cr&) ”
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· My password for my Fidelity account would be “ #*f1D3&) ”
Example 2:
Here’s an example of what a long password (i.e. twelve characters) for my Twitter account might look like:
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· I’ve chosen to start my password with “ ?#* ”
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· Twitter = twiter
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· I replace the “I” with a “1”
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· I replace the “e” with a “3”
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· I capitalize the second letter, so “w” becomes “W”
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· I end my password with “ &)+ ”
· This makes my password for my Twitter account “ ?#*tW1t3r&)+ ”. It looks like gibberish, but you know what it means and it's extremely hard to hack
Example 3:
You can also change your password every month, and still keep within a predefined format. Add the two-digit month at a set place within the password. For example it could be just after the two or three characters which begin your password. For Twitter, my password would be “ #*10tW1t&) ” for October. It still looks like a totally random chosen password, but to you, it makes sense.
This gives you a very strong password that is not easy to guess, AND that you can easily remember once you have customized the format for you.
Are there other
topics you’d like me to cover? Send an email to
Gail@GeekForHireInc.com.
Happy Computing!
Gail P. Eddy
Business Manager
Geek For Hire, Inc.
www.GeekForHireInc.com
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