Skip to main content

How to Choose a Good Password

I know that coming up with a good password can be difficult, so here are some guidelines to use.
 
 Choose a password that is at least six characters long. This should be long enough to discourage a brute-force attack. Currently, the maximum password length on many Unix systems is eight characters, but if you want to add a few more characters to make it easier to remember, go ahead. Just bear in mind that anything after the eighth character will be ignored (so ``abnormalbrain'' is the same as ``abnormal''). 
 
In general, a good password will have a mix of lower- and upper-case characters, numbers, and punctuation marks, and should be at least 6 characters long. Unfortunately, passwords like this are often hard to remember and result in people writing them down. Do not write your passwords down!
 
The license plate rule: take a phrase and try to squeeze it into eight characters, as if you wanted to put it on a vanity license plate.
 
Some people like to pick several small words, separated by punctuation marks of some kind.
 Put a punctuation mark in the middle of a word, e.g., ``vege%tarian''.
 Use some unusual way of contracting a word. You don't have to use an apostrophe.
 
 One of my favorite passwords was ``kEp*-h&y'': ``kEp'' --> ``keep'', ``*-'' --> ``laser'' (like those signs that you see outside of physics labs), and ``h&y'' --> ``handy''; ``Keep your laser handy!'' 
 
You can use control characters. Just bear in mind that a lot of them have special meanings. If you use ^D, ^H or ^U, for example, you might not be able to log in again. 
 
Think of an uncommon phrase, and take the first, second or last letter of each word. ``You can't always get what you want'' would yield ``ycagwyw''. Throw in a capital letter and a puntuation mark or a number or two, and you can end up with ``yCag5wyw''. 
 
Deliberately misspelling one or more words can make your password harder to crack.
 Use several of the techniques above. 
 
Something that no one but you would ever think of. The best password is one that is totally random to anyone else except you. It is difficult to tell you how to come up with these, but people are able to do it. Use your imagination!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What Is Internet Website Content?

What Is Internet Website Content? Content is made up of multiple elements, and is primarily the; * On-page visible text * Images and image Alt text * Anchor text in hyperlinks to internal or external pages * Hyperlink titles in links and menus * The descriptive Title and Description meta-data In the context of Google, a picture is NOT worth a thousand words! Moreover, words must be accessible, not embedded in images or Flash movies, JavaScript, slide shows etc. In 15 years as an SEO consultant, if there's one common denominator evident on websites, it's that there is a profound reluctance to expend time, money, and creative energy on unique text content. Brevity is the watchword - economical use of words is encouraged by design, branding and marketing advisers! * The branding gurus want you to use the textual equivalent of sound bites - bullet points and short sentences! * The website designers want the entire content of the page to be above ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Local Business Online Visibility Tips – Use What You Do Every Day

When you think about online visibility for your local business it's so easy to get wrapped up and overloaded with what you should be doing on the internet to promote your website. Yet, small changes to your every day business routine can make a big difference. Often, business owners think about being visible online as a way of reaching people whom you have had no contact with at all. That's true in many cases. Sometimes, online visibility is as simple as making sure that people you interact with (even briefly) as part of your usual business routines are aware of your online presence. Not everyone wants to pick up the phone or call in to your premises to find out basic information like your opening hours or who to contact. Sometimes people just want to find out a bit more about you and your company. In this day and age of always being plugged in to the Internet, your website is the first p...
Post a Comment
Read more

The REAL Value of Keywords

An important question in SEO is how much intrinsic value resides in a specific keyword and, whether SEO has the potential to take everybody on a fool's errand? When it comes to bigger companies, for instance, can a massive SEO investment in trying to achieve top ranking for almost-generic, ultra-competitive keywords be worth all the disappointment and soul-searching? Surely, in so many cases, there has to be a better way? At the other end of the scale are smaller companies with a limited marketing budget, particularly in the business-to-business sphere. There is often a fine balance to achieve when it comes to investing in SEO for what can only be low-traffic keywords in niche sectors, even where higher gross margins per sale indicate otherwise. Realizing this, many companies will skip the on-line sales dance, or resign themselves to having a website that is little more than an 'on-line brochure' presence or a support mechanism for Pay-Per-Click or social media activities. ...
Post a Comment
Read more