How to Create Strong Passwords that are Easy to Remember but Hard to Break

How to Create Strong Passwords that are Easy to Remember but Hard to Break

What is password strength?

According to WikiPedia:

Password strength is a measurement of the effectiveness of a password as an authentication credential. Specifically, it estimates how many trials an attacker who does not have direct access to the password would need, on average, to correctly guess it. The strength of a password is a function of length, complexity, and randomness.

How to create a Strong Password?

We all know the common guidelines for choosing a strong password:

·         Include numbers, symbols, upper and lowercase letters

·         Password should be more than 8 characters long.

·         Avoid any password based on repetition, dictionary words, letter or number sequences, usernames, relative or pet names, or biographical information (birth day).

Now the problem with creating random strong passwords are that they are very hard to remember. So once you start having to memorize a number of them it gets virtually impossible to keep them all memorized. There are a few tricks that you can follow to create strong memorable passwords. I learned one strong and memorable password creation trick last week that I am going to share in this post.

The Password Phrase method

The phrase method is an easy way to remember complicated passwords that are hard to crack.

1. Use the Phrase Method:
2. Choose a phrase that has numbers.
3. Use only the first letter in each word.
4. Use the proper case for each letter, just as it appears in the phrase.
5. Use actual numbers whenever possible. Use “2″ for “two” or “to” and “4″ for “four” or “for.”
6. Include punctuation.

Lets take the following phrase as an example:

My flight to New York will leave at three in the afternoon!

Using the Password Phrase method explained above, the password becomes:

MftNYwla3ita!

Don’t remember the password, just remember the phrase.

You can see that this Password abides by the Strong Password Creation rule and it is also easy to remember!

You can even use a phrase as the password if the system allows you to enter a phrase. For example the following phrase will make a strong password.

I prefer to go to bed by 10:00!

Password strength Meter

The following tool is not perfect but will give you some indications as to how strong a password is. Just type in a random password to try it out.

Top of Form

Type the password:

Strength score is:
  
Strength :

Log:

Bottom of Form

Some General Password/Security tips

·         Avoid using dictionary words in any language

·         Avoid sequences or repeated characters

·         Change your password on a schedule.

·         Do not allow Internet Explorer to store passwords.

·         Do not type passwords on computers that you do not control.

·         Never provide your password over e-mail.

·         Never respond to an email asking for personal information (Banks will never ask you for your personal information in an email).

·         Patch and update the softwares you use on a regular basis.

·         Use caution when opening email attachments.

·         Limit the amount of personal information you post about yourself.