Fix Your Terrible, Insecure Passwords in Five Minutes

[Onkel Neal]

This is a method I have used for a while, nice.

Your passwords aren't very secure. Even if you think they are, they probably aren't. Do you use the same or similar passwords for several different important sites? If you don't, pat yourself on the back; if you do, you're not alone—one recent survey found that half of people online use the same password for all the sites they visit. Do you change your passwords often? Probably not; more than 90 percent don't. If one of your accounts falls to a hacker, will he find enough to get into your other accounts? For a scare, try this: Search your e-mail for some of your own passwords. You'll probably find a lot of them, either because you've e-mailed them to yourself or because some Web sites send along your password when you register or when you tell them you've forgotten it. If an attacker manages to get into your e-mail, he'll have an easy time accessing your bank account, your social networking sites, and your fantasy baseball roster. That's exactly what happened at Twitter. (Here's my detailed explanation of how Twitter got compromised.)

Any suggestions, or ideas that work for you (without giving anything away).

Neal

[mookiemookie]

My subsim password is:

"IwantfrigginwolfpacksinSH5isthattoomuchtoask!?!?! "

Foriegn languages (languages which use more than 26 letters/characters)

[GoldenRivet]

Bookmark your favorite sites from top to bottom on your favorites list.

then use word or two from a popular rhyme for each password

for example

SITE...............PASSWORD

AOL.........................MARYHAD
GMAIL.....................ALITTLE
SUBSIM..................LAMBITS
BLOGSPOT.............FLEECE
DUATS.COM............WASWHITE
HOTMAIL................ASSNOW
FACEBOOK............ANDEVERY
MYSPACE...............WHERETHAT

or whatever phrase or slogan or rhyme or lyrics to a song you can easily remember

some sites require numbers... so:

AOL.........................MARYHAD11
GMAIL.....................ALITTLE22
SUBSIM..................LAMBITS33
BLOGSPOT.............FLEECE44
DUATS.COM............WASWHITE55
HOTMAIL................ASSNOW66
FACEBOOK............ANDEVERY77
MYSPACE...............WHERETHAT88

change the passwords monthly to a new phrase that is easily remembered.

[August]

I use a small notebook. I write the usernames in ink and the passwords in pencil. Totally unhackable.

[GoldenRivet]

Create a monthly code book for the enigma simulator, with ring settings, plug board settings and the works.

write your passwords down, encode them into enigma ciphers and write the enigma ciphers down in a note book and destroy the original text.

change the codes monthly, and use the deciphered code as your password

[Torplexed]

I dunno, I've always thought of my current password, 123456 as pretty secure. Maybe to be safe I'll change it to 654321.

[kiwi_2005]

Upper & lowercase with the odd number thrown in nothing to hard cause i dont want to forget it! Many times ive done this and forgotten to write it down only to forget the pw next time i go to log in. So you retrieve pw option but what was that new email address I setup was it hotmail, gmail or was it my ISP emails. Oh cr*p and i move on to something else while mumbling to myself never to go back there again.

Bank logins i never save the password if browser asks as anyone can hack your browser and retrieve all your username/pws details especially with FireFox.

[Aramike]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

I dunno, I've always thought of my current password, 123456 as pretty secure. Maybe to be safe I'll change it to 654321.

I'm curious as to how many people have tried to access your Subsim account...

[Letum]

Security tips:

1) Create a password of random numbers and letters
2) Do not store a reminder on your PC's hard drive
3) Send a copy of all important passwords to my PM box in case you lose them
4) Beware of others trying to trick you into revealing your password

[danlisa]

Upper & Lower Case letter.
Numbers
Symbols (aka *#{£ etc) especially key combos like Alt+0169 = ©

+ A little (as it happens SH4) notebook beside my PC & TXT file on any mobile device.

Using key combo characters prevents automated password crackers from working 99% of the time, like the one for cracking passworded RAR files etc.

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Torplexed

I dunno, I've always thought of my current password, 123456 as pretty secure. Maybe to be safe I'll change it to 654321.

That's my password! How did you get it?!

[VipertheSniper]

I take a sentence I can easily remember and create an acronym out of the first or last letters of the words in it, since nouns are starting with a capital letter in German, whether I take the last letter or the first, if it's from a noun it'll be a capital letter. Then I throw in a number for good measure.

No writing up passwords here, my brain is all I need.

[Jimbuna]

I keep a small notebook and use a combination of Upper, lower, letters and symbols etc.

.....then check how difficult it is to crack.

[AVGWarhawk]

My password has always been PASSWORD