Protecting everything you lock with a good password is when you use length and complexity (mix of letters, numbers, symbols, and capitals). A six character password has been shown to be able to be cracked in under 13 minutes, but even a ten character password would currently take 900 years to crack with our latest technology. While this sounds like a fast way to have forgotten passwords, there are a few ways to generate good passwords without forgetting them or losing them.
- Use a converted sentence
You can create a sentence that converts to a password. For example, “I work at Smith and Jones from 9 to 5” would then turn into “IwaS&Jf9t5”. That way all you have to do is remember the sentence in order to remember the password all the while getting a complex, hard to crack password.
- Use a full sentence
This is similar to the above, but you can use a full sentence without shortening the words as well. A password like “Butterflies are beautiful!” would be an absolutely uncrackable password. Some accounts may not allow spaces, so it might be better to use another method if that’s the case.
- Use a password manager
If you use a password manager, you only have to remember the one to get into it and then it will remember the rest. The password manager applications are encrypted and secure so that no one can crack into it. Most of them also include a password generator that will create the most complex passwords and store them at the same time. It’s easy to use and with some all you have to do is copy and paste. There are even some that you can integrate into your browser and other applications and it can auto populate your passwords for you.
FREE – Risk Assessment