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BobbyDouglas -> Using secure passwords / password selection (10/21/2005 14:14:34)
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A lot of people might not care about this, but those who do secure stuff online, should really think about this.
If you have a password that is easily remembered, the chances that someone can pick it out, are pretty good.
I remember when people used to use words like "rabbit" or the year they were born as their password. This is extremely insecure.
The best passwords, are those that cannot be guessed. Ever think someone can figure out how you came to a password such as: mUNi89nv43nNuivre ?
Most likely nobody will every be able to figure out that password since it is so complex. But you still need to be able to enter the password!
My suggestion is this:
1) Download a program called KeePass (Quite a few web host companies will use this program to store their passwords)
2) The KeePass program works off of a database. All of your passwords are stored inside one database,and protected by a master password.
3) Think of some common passwords you use. Just to use an easy example, I will pick: rabbit, god, and pizza.
4) Think of a way of organization that you will always remember. Maybe it is group A>Z, or Z>A, or sort by the length of the word (if two words are the same length, then sort in A>Z order). In our case, the password would be godpizzarabbit. That still isn't not quite secure, but notice our password is 14 characters long, which is a lot better than our 6 character long password "rabbit". The great part about this program, is that it accepts all of these as parts of your password: @#$%^&*(). This will help with the next step.
5) Last, you need to think of a way to make godpizzarabbit, but still easy enough to remember. Start with something like this g1o2d1p2i1z2z1a2r1a2b1b2i1t2 notice how hard that would be to guess? But we are not done yet. To make sure that it will be even harder to figure out, we need to add some special characters. I would do something like this: g$1$o$2$d$1$p$2$i$1$z$2$z$1$a$2$r$1$a$2$b$1$b$2$i$1$t$2
So, what do we have to remember, in order to remember our password? We think of the 3 common words, place them in A>Z order so we have godpizzarabbit. We type out godpizzarabbit, and then alternate between 1 and 2 until we reach the last letter, then we end up with g1o2d1p2i1z2z1a2r1a2b1b2i1t2. After this, we place a $ after each letter, except for the last letter.
Our ending result is a password of 56 characters: g$1$o$2$d$1$p$2$i$1$z$2$z$1$a$2$r$1$a$2$b$1$b$2$i$1$t$2
It might sound a bit complicated, and it was for me at first, but after a day or so it really catches on. I printed out my password for the first week, just to make sure I remember it. My database is stored in a hidden folder that I just remember by name, and the extension of the database has been changed. Someone would have to know the extenion of the new database, in order to find it on my computer.
I also have a duplicate copy of it hosted online (with the extenion renamed to zip), as well on a secure USB flash drive. When someone tries to open the zip file, they see it is currupted, and toss it away.
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