Strong Passwords Made Easy
We have preached and preached about using a good password manager like LastPass (or pick any good password manager) to create and manage passwords,. But we have finally realized that many of you are still not using a password manager and you’re never going to.
But we can’t begin to tell you how important it is that you use strong passwords and never reuse passwords on any site that deals with money or sensitive information (Social Security number, credit card numbers, etc.).
We have been around the computer world for a long time, so we know exactly why so many of you use simple passwords like sandyb1831 or reggie48… and we know why you use the same passwords over and over. Why? Because you can’t remember strong complex passwords and it’s a pain in the neck when you can’t log in to sites because you can’t remember your passwords. (These are all good reasons you should use a password manager like LastPass! )
So, for those of you who don’t want to use a password manager, here are some tips on creating easy-to-remember, but strong and complex passwords from your old uncle TC and auntie EB.
Let’s say your favorite movie is Gone With the Wind. You make as strong password from that, you know?
Gon3WlTHth3w1nd*
That’s one way to do it. Notice the E’s are 3’s and the capital I in WITH is actually a lower case L. And the asterisk at the end adds a symbol to create a very secure password. According to www.howsecureismypassword.net it would take a hacker 4 quadrillion years to crack that password. That’s longer than even EB is going to be around.
Or “Gone With the Wind” fans, try this one:
Fr@nkly$c@let*i*d0ntgiv3@d@mn
It would take a computer about 4 UNDECILLION YEARS to crack that password.
What if your wife has nice eyes? And her name is Meg?
iLuvuri$m3g
You are in luck. Even though that password is fairly short, it would take 400 years for a computer to crack that password.
Or what about your license plate, last 4 digits of your cell number and your first name. You can remember those things, right?
NEOU812*4419*D@n
His Nebraska license plate is OU812, the last 4 digits of his phone number is 4419 and his name is Dan. As you can see we used asterisks to separate them and the @ sign for the a in Dan. Oh so clever! And Dan, you’re pretty safe… according to www.howsecureismypassword.net it would take a computer one trillion years to crack that one.
OK… now we’ve given you some ideas on how to create some pretty strong passwords that are easy to remember and almost impossible to hack. If you don’t want to use a password manager like LastPass, at least put our easy-to-use password tips to good use! After all, it’s for your own safety.
Let’s see what I can do with Darcy’s name…
d@rcyYRu$0M3@N?
429 billion years to crack that one, EB!
Another suggestion I remember reading about years ago is to take one of your favorite sayings or song titles that you might say/sing a lot. Use the first letters of each word. Again, use an @ for an “a” and remember to add a question mark if it’s a question for extra protection.
Hi Gina, yes you can use @ for A, 3 for E, $ for S etc. That’s what we did in our example.
Thank you Uncle TC and Auntie EB for new ideas on some new passwords I’m going to try out. I had a good giggle reading Darcy’s. Being a senior, senior (that means older than dirt) I have written my passwords down in a special book so that my sons can get into my computer when the time comes for them to take over. I’m going to make some cute ones like Darcy’s so that they can have a giggle too when they might need it.
Thank you once again for all you do for all of us.
Hey, Darcy isn’t mean a’tall! You two are not only geniuses but such comedians, too! THANKS!
I keep getting hacked on FB. I remember reading this and thought, “oh I’m using good passwords” till of late keep getting hacked, so I had to look this up and so glad I remembered you told about this cool password stuff. I am using one now. Thanks so much. What would we do without Cloudeight.
Thanks!
Hello both of you. am thankful for your compassion to help people. I got your aShampoo program and an external hard drive . I am so not knowledgeable about how to ‘take care of/ what my maintenance responsibility. Every time MicroSoft updates, every few weeks it seems!, I get this message:
SECURITY AND MAINTENANCE Reconnect your drive. Your file History drive was disconnected for too long. Reconnect it and then tap or click to keep saving copies of your files.
Would you please help me understand how AShampoo program works and how the hard drive works. I do not know how to reconnect my file history drive or where it is! Thank you. My external hard drive is drive F:
Also, I am using LIbre Office, and I have to choose odf extension, I think, and have option of rdf? or something like that extension when I save. What do these mean? Thank You again
Thank you again. Imogene Linedecker