If we had a dollar for every email, we’ve received that says something like “I’ve been hacked!” we would have hundreds -maybe thousands – of dollars.<\/span><\/p>\n Yep!\u00a0We have preached and preached about using a password manager like LastPass (or pick any good password manager) to create and manage passwords. But we know, no matter how many times we say it, most of you are not going to use a password manager.<\/span><\/p>\n Using strong passwords and never reusing passwords on any site that deals with money or sensitive information (Social Security number, credit card numbers, etc.)is like putting a quality lock and a deadbolt on your front door. Your password is the key that unlocks your personal information – you need to make it a priority to use strong passwords.<\/span><\/p>\n But we deal with facts and we’ve 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\u2026 or heaven forbid “password”. <\/span><\/p>\n And we know why you use the same passwords over and over. And that is because you can\u2019t remember strong complex passwords. And it\u2019s frustrating when you can\u2019t log in to sites because you can\u2019t remember the passwords. And, coincidentally, these are all good reasons you should use a password manager like LastPass, RoboForm, or any good password manager!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n So, for those of you who are resistant to using a password manager, here is our guide for creating easy-to-remember, yet strong and complex passwords, from your old uncle TC and auntie EB.<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s say your favorite movie is Gone with the Wind.\u00a0 You make a strong password from that, you know?<\/span><\/p>\n Gon3WlTHth3w1nd*<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n That\u2019s one way to do it. Notice the E\u2019s are 3\u2019s and the capital I in WITH is a lower-case L. And the asterisk at the end adds a symbol to create a very secure password. According to My1Login’s password checker<\/span><\/a>, it would take an expert hacker 25,000 years to crack that baby.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Are you a \u201cGone with the Wind\u201d fan? Then try this one:<\/span><\/p>\n Fr@nkly$c@let*i*d0ntgiv3@d@mn<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n It would take a computer 5 trillion years to crack that one. The universe probably won’t last that long, and I’m positive none of us will. I don’t think hackers would waste their entire lifetime trying to crack that one – do you?<\/span><\/p>\n What if your wife has nice eyes? And her name is Meg?<\/span><\/p>\n iLuvuri$m3g<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n You are in luck. Even though that password is fairly short, it would take 28 years for a hacker to crack that password. I don’t think anyone is going to waste 28 years of life trying to hack into my pitiful bank account.<\/span><\/p>\n Or what about your license plate, the last 4 digits of your cell number, and your first name. You can remember those things, right?<\/span><\/p>\n NEOU812*4419*D@n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n His Nebraska license plate is OU812, the last 4 digits of his phone number are 4419 and his name is Dan. As you can see, we used asterisks to separate them and the @ sign for the letter “a” in Dan. Oh, so clever!\u00a0 And Dan, you\u2019re safe. According to My1Login’s password checker<\/a>, it would take a computer 54,000 years to crack that one.<\/span><\/p>\n OK\u2026 now we\u2019ve given you some ideas on how to create some strong passwords that are easy to remember and almost impossible to hack. If you don\u2019t want to use a password manager like LastPass<\/a>, at least create strong passwords using the information in this guide. Your passwords are the keys to your accounts. Weak passwords are an invitation to BIG TROUBLE!<\/span><\/p>\n Let\u2019s see what I can do with Darcy\u2019s name\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n Darcy*Y*R*u*S0*me@n?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n 704 billion years to crack that one, EB!<\/span><\/p>\n If you don’t want to use a password manager, we hope you’ll use the tips in this guide to make strong passwords that you can easily remember.<\/span><\/p>\n See how strong your passwords are – check your passwords here<\/span><\/a>.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your Security Begins with Strong Passwords\u00a0 If we had a dollar for every email, we’ve received that says something like “I’ve been hacked!” we would have hundreds -maybe thousands – of dollars. Yep!\u00a0We have preached and preached about using a password manager like LastPass (or pick any good password manager) to create and manage passwords. But\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2942,1670,1656],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20226"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22382,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20226\/revisions\/22382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Strong](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2020\/pass-gone.png\")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Strong](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2020\/pass-frankly.png\")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Strong](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2020\/pass-meg.png\")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Strong](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2020\/pass-dan.png\")
<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Strong](\"https:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/images\/2020\/pass-darcy.png\")
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