How to Create Strong, Unique Passwords (And Remember Them)
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IMG Book and Key
> I changed all my passwords to 'incorrect' so, whenever I forget
> it, the computer will tell me 'Your password is incorrect'.
Think quick! How many of the websites you visit share the *same*
password?
It has been recommended by many [security industry
specialists][1]{:target="_blank"} that you should use *unique*
passwords for each and every important account that you have.
However, with so many accounts that we have in today's world, it
has become increasingly difficult to keep track of all of them.
I'm going to show you a very simple way to create *unique*
passwords and, best of all, remember them when you need to.
The Basic Passphrase Component
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Instead of using *passwords*, we will be using *passphrases*.
phrases that are easy to remember __for you__ but that, due to
its length and [entropy][2]{:target="_blank"} considerations, are
difficult to crack.
What makes a good passphrase? Any phrase that you can remember
easily:
1. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
2. To be or not to be. That is the question.
3. Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans.
4. Today is the best day of your life.
5. I'm on a seafood diet. I see food and I eat it.
You name it. Pick or make your favourite phrase!
I will use the first one -"The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog"- as our starting point.
Don't be afraid to play with your keyboard. Start capitalizing
and substituting some of the letters for symbols. You may have to
remove spaces too, so you will probably end up with something
like this:
''' Th3Qu!ckBr0wnF0xJump5Ov3rTh3L@zyD0g '''
And that is just for a start! Depending of your needs and
preferences, you can make it longer or shorter.
I know! Our initial passphrase is a little bit long so, for our
purposes, we will shorten it to:
Th3Qu!ckBr0wnF0x
Let's move on to the **second** part of our crafted password!
The Website Name Component
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We are going to need the name of the website that is going to use
our password.
Let's say that this password is for the Facebook website.
We do the same kind of letter substitution we did on our basic
passphrase, so Facebook becomes:
F@c3b00k
Same goes for other website names such as Twitter (Tw!773r) or
Google (G00g13), or any other website name you want.
Bundling it all together
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This is the part where the magic happens!
We will join our basic passphrase component with the now modified
website name component.
For extra points, you can pick any symbol you want to be used as
a space, like -, &, %, or any other your heart desires.
So, for our hypothetical Facebook account, that would be:
Th3Qu!ckBr0wnF0x%F@c3b00k
For Twitter: Th3Qu!ckBr0wnF0x%Tw1773r
or Google: Th3Qu!ckBr0wnF0x%G00g13
Of course, it doesn't have to be precisely in that order. You can
put the website name component at the beginning...
F@c3b00k%Th3Qu!ckBr0wnF0x
or somewhere in the middle, like right before the last word of
your basic passphrase:
Th3Qu!ckBr0wn%F@c3b00k%F0x
The secret is that, whatever your preference, stick to the way
you are mixing the basic passphrase component and the modified
website name component.
Voilá! Instant, strong, *unique* passwords for all your website
account needs that are also easy to remember *for you*!
If you have any other ideas or suggestions on how to create
unique, easily memorable passwords without having to resort to
anything besides your brain and a pencil *maybe*, let me know in
the comments!
[1]: https://www.communications.gov.au/what-we-do/internet/
stay-smart-online/computers/set-and-use-strong-passwords
[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_(information_theory)