Passwords come in all shapes and sizes. We know our passwords should always be unique, impossible to crack, and never used on more than one site. Now let's come back to reality where we both know that you use the exact same password for email, Facebook, Google, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Walmart, online banking, and even my site "Glazierstore"... Well, you get the picture.
We have so many sites that all require a password to log into. Then almost every site has its own set of rules for what your password must include. I don't know how many times I have signed up for an account just this month, and one site wanted numbers, letter, and special characters. Another site wanted just numbers and letters. To my surprise, one of the site's requirements were only numbers and letters, and it could be no longer than 6 characters. Maybe they just know we're lazy when it comes to remembering passwords.
I've seen all the posts about methods of how to secure your passwords. I'll list a popular method, and then I will explain how I secure my passwords. I'll show you a way to have a secure password for all your different accounts, and they will be more secure and easy to remember.
POPULAR METHOD OF SECURING PASSWORDS
Password Management Software
In the Google Play Store if you look up "Password Manager" you will find there are so many apps to choose from you then just click on the first one because it makes your head hurt. Google may have helped you out a little because that one is one of the most popular password management apps on the market. On the other hand, for our iOS users when I searched for the same term some different apps were listed at the top. My iPhone listed "Password Manager Vault" and "Password Safe Lock" as the top results. I have actually never heard of either of these apps before now since my main device is an Android. That does not mean those aren't good. I've just not searched for them on iPhone until now. "I used my Samsung Galaxy S8 to search the Google Play Store, and I used my iPhone 4s for searching the Apple App Store. Your devices may produce slightly different results".
Password Generators
You may not want to deal with trying to come up with your own password, so the ideal solution is to find a random password generator site. These sites basically ask you for the password requirements, and then you click submit to get a random string of characters. Depending on what criteria you entered for your password determines the outcome. For example, if you selected the following options it would give you something that looks similar to this. My Method of Secure Passwords
I have to admit that I came up with this method of generating secure passwords some time ago. While researching the information in this article I discovered that I am NOT the genius I thought I was. In 2008 a man by the name of Bruce Schneier recommended a way of using a sentence and turning it into a secure password. Basically, you come up with a sentence that is either personal or just easy for you to remember. Then you take words from the sentence and connect certain characters from different words making a password that's easy for you to remember.
Here are some examples:
WIw7,mstmsritt... = When I was seven, my sister threw my stuffed rabbit in the toilet.
Wow...doestcst = Wow, does that couch smell terrible.
Ltime@go-inag~faaa! = Long time ago in a galaxy not far away at all. uTVM,TPw55:utvm,tpwstillsecure = Until this very moment, these passwords were still secure.
My method was already being used long before I thought of it. I do like to think I can take credit for coming up with the idea before ever knowing about Bruce Schneier's method.
Here is a similar example of how I come up with my passwords:
MdaMswgf@tp@12 = My daughter and my son will go fishing at the pond at 12:00.
It's easy to think of a sentence that you know will get stuck in your head. It's definitely easier to remember than this: Then you just have to pick and choose what order and style you want to use it for your password. I always pick the first letters and I have an order of which letters get to be capitalized and which are something else. You can pick any of the letters and do whatever you want with them that's easy for you to remember as long as your end result fits the requirements of the web page you're creating it for.
I know we said never use the same password twice. To alleviate that you can simply have memorable phrases you use for each site. When you visit my site you will find that creating an account is actually optional, but you should do it anyway for when you keep coming back for new things.
Now, What Methods Do You Use To Secure Your Passwords? Let's Hear Your Ideas In The Comments.
No comments:
Post a Comment