Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Creating Effective Passwords

By Greg Luther, Computer Shoppe

If you have a computer then you have most likely created a few passwords.  If you are like most, you have created a password that is simple so you can remember it.  Or you have written it down somewhere, but it is not secure if others can see it or easily guess it.  So, how do you create a password that is easy to remember yet very difficult to crack?  Here are some basic rules to follow.  First, you want your passwords to be at least eight characters in length, and if possible, more characters are even better.  Second, you want a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and special characters, e.g., %, *, @.  Using a combination of these characters make it very difficult to crack; however,  it also is more difficult to remember because of all the combinations of different characters.  Here is an example of how you can turn a password that is easy to remember but  not a good password into a password that is easy to remember and a great password.  Lets say your password is the name of your pet, and the name is Lassie.  Terrible password, but that can be changed into a good password by substituting the characters in the name with other similar characters.  Lassie can be converted into l@SSi3.  L becomes l, a becomes @, ss becomes SS, and e becomes the mirror image of E which 3.  This password is getting better, but it is still too short.  So, you could combine the name of two pets. So, if your other pet is named Garfield, you could join the two names with && between the two names, and your new password could become l@SSi3&&g@rfi3lD.  Now the password is easy to remember but impossible to crack.  So use substitutions that make sense to you and be creative.

1 comment:

  1. Yes and then you can't remember the caps and never can access that account againg in your life. :D XD

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