Let’s face it. You need a secure password.
You have to remember a lot of passwords in your online travels. There are many ways to create a secure password and manage it, but if you are like me you are LAZY! There is a way to create a very secure password that is very easy to remember and a breeze to change.
Why users create unsecure passwords
Users create unsecure passwords because it is easy to remember. That’s great until you get hacked and you need to deal with something as serious as identity theft. That is why most online services won’t let you create a password that is considered unsecure. They use the principle of password complexity and password history.
This system will help you with both. Now on to the steps!
1 – Make the Secure Password Long but not too Long
The longer your password is the harder it will be to crack. Don’t make this too long. I would make the password 8-12 characters
2 – Add a Capital Letter to Your Secure Password
Add a capital letter somewhere. Hey, your lazy right? How about right at the beginning!
3 – Put a Symbol Somewhere in the Secure Password
Symbols are great and can be used in place of letters. Symbols like @, $ and ! can be used. You get the gist.
4 – Put a Number Somewhere in the Secure Password
Numbers are great too. They can be used in place of similar looking letters or add it to the end to your password to make it longer and more complex.
5 – Make part of Your Secure Password a Nonsensical Word
Here is the Key to a secure but easy to remember password….a simple nonsensical word. Password crackers look for common words to perform attacks like brute force or dictionary attacks to try and gain access to your passwords. So why not make up a word that is easy to remember but is something that would never come up in these types of attacks?
Example
Here is an example of a simple but secure password:
Sh@bamm22!
Why? Let’s go through each of the five steps and see how easy it was to create it.
- Length – It is between 8-12 characters.
- Capital Letter – It has one.
- Symbol – It has one and it is in place of a letter and one at the end.
- It has Numbers in it.
- The password is based on a simple nonsensical word that the rest of the password elements were built around.
Conclusion
It took me literally 5 seconds to come up with that secure password. Since it is a combination of letters, numbers and symbols coupled with its length, it is virtually impossible to crack. The odds are in your favor. You can’t get much lazier than that.
The beauty is, when you are asked to change it (most systems will ask you to change it from time to time), all you have to do is change one or 2 characters and it is still impossible to crack. Yet you can remember it!
Make it even better by adding MFA.
Sometimes being smart gets misunderstood as being lazy…..
Dan
I am an IT professional with over twenty years experience in the field. I have supported thousands of users over the years. The organizations I have worked for range in size from one person to hundreds of people. I have performed support from Help Desk, Network / Cloud Administration, Network Support, Application Support, Implementation and Security.