Tag Archives: strong

Creating a Strong Password 101

Posted on by

Most authentication is still based on username and password, personally I feel this is adequate for most of my personal accounts as long as I use a strong password. I do wish MY Bank offered two factor authentication, but alas it does not yet.

So, if a strong password is ALL you have to protect yourself how do you create one and more importantly how do you remember it? Let’s start with creating a strong password…

CREATING A STRONG PASSWORD

  • Pick two or three words that are 10 or more letters in length.
  • Use unrelated words
  • Substitute at least one letter for a number, such as 4 for A or 3 for E.  Do not substitute ALL possible letters for numbers.
  • Add a punctuation.
  • Capitalize at least one letter.

Sound doable?  Now, the real challenge is remembering it.  If you absolutely cannot remember passwords then I suggest using the Password Safe, just make sure your password to access the safe is VERY secure.  This allows you to remember only one password and have access to all your other passwords contained in the safe.  For those of you that  feel up to the challenge try running an installation of TeamPass.  It is what I personally use.  Just make sure to back it up and NEVER change the salt.  You should be able to but it is not supported yet and you will lose ALL of your passwords as well as all passwords for all others.  I suggest not putting this site on the internet.

EXAMPLE 1

  • picture leaf
  • pictur3 l3af
  • pictur3#l3af
  • Pictur3#l3aF

Now what you have to remember….

  • picture#leaf with e’s substituted for 3’s and the first and last letters capitalized. 

EXAMPLE 2

  • space manhole
  • sp4ce m4nhole
  • sp4ce.m4nhole
  • sp4cE.M4nhole

Now what you have to remember….

  • space.manhole with a’s substituted for 4’s and the last letter of the first word and first letter of the last word capitalized.
Advertisement