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CONSIDERING HOW OFTEN we rely on them, we don’t really give enough thought to passwords. We use them for everything yet we rely on the same few over and over again.
Since you have a bit of time on your hands, it might be worth considering all of the services you’re use. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and others could do with a better password than ’1234567′ or different passwords if you’ve used the same one for multiple accounts.
List your accounts
You will know the obvious ones listed above, but what about those you signed up to but forgot about. If you can’t remember them, check your downloaded apps list through the App Store or Google Play and check your email.
Searching for ‘Welcome to’ and similar terms usually brings up services you signed up to.
Picking a strong password
If you have it boiled down to a few accounts, then you can get round to changing them. Resist the temptation to give two or more accounts the same password. If you’re worried about not remembering them all, there are ways to keep it simple.
- The more characters you use, the better, but mix it up with capital letters, symbols and numbers.
- Don’t use the same password for two or more accounts. If one falls, the rest will likely follow.
- A good strategy is to separate random words with symbols so you can remember them. A password like tablet_37pins_Cavan might be nonsense but it’s too complex for anyone to guess correctly.
- If you want to test out the strength of a password, you can do so with this site.
If you have too many to remember, it’s really worth your time to look at getting a password manager. There are some great ones out there like 1Password, Dashlane, and Sticky Password which only require you to remember one strong password instead of numerous ones.
Most of these options are cross platform too so you will be able to transfer them to your smartphone as well.
Other ways to keep them safe
The quickest method, outside of a strong password, is to set up two-step verification on your phone. The methods differ for each site, but most apps and services offer it in some form, either by text message or through a specialised app.
By requiring you to log in with your phone as well, it adds an extra layer of security, but it shouldn’t be used in place of a strong password.
This piece is part of 12 days of tech, a series offering quick tips and tech advice for you during the Christmas holidays. You can find more entries here.
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‘Password incorrect’ you’ll never forget that ,it always pops up to remind you.
Why is it that if I take even one extra day off over a weekend I completely forget all passwords the next day in work?
Here are some tips someone may find useful.
Use a long password. Long passwords are best.
Create one in Irish. Most dictionary attacks will look for English words.
Finally use the same password for everything but randomise them a little bit for each site. A simple example would be to take the first letter of the website name along with the number of letters in the website name and add it to the end.
If someone gets your password for one site they will have gotten hundreds of other people’s passwords as well. They more than likely won’t try and crack your “code”.
So for example
TameoChorcaighG6 could be your Google password.
TameoChorcaighF8 could be your Facebook one.
Pick a family member that is close to you, eg son, daughter, aunt, uncle etc etc.
Select a Year that you remember very well, either birth or important to you in some way.
Use the @ sign and select Country abb like Irl for Ireland, Uk for UK, etc etc or full country.
Then Add them all together using upper and lower case….
MarySue2010@Irl
MichaelJohn70@Ireland
Change them around as you need…
Fine if you only use a handful of passwords, but not if you use 100+, which many people now do.
Or you could just pick passwords and MEMORISE them. …
I use a password manager, because I have over 100 different passwords in use. Each one is at least 12 characters long and completely random. If you are capable of memorising that amount of information – even for sites/applications that you use only occasionally – then fair play to you, but the vast majority of people are not.
I use keeper as it encrypts the passwords and stores in the cloud
According to that password strength link it would take a computer 21 quadrillion years to crack
I always just copy my email address in as a password then add the password after. Most sites you are entering your email anyway so it’s nothing to copy it in.
Told me it would take 5 quintillion years for a PC to crack mine. Hmmm, not too sure. But I have a little hack for my passwords not unlike those above me. I have a word and a number seperated by an underscore and then I use the name of the website. So say the word is roses and the number is 38 and the site is facebook. My password is then Roses38_facebook. Someone else said to use an Irish word and I would advise that also. Happy hiding folks.
xkcd has the best password advice encapsulated into a 6 panel cartoon.
If the system allows it, choose at least 2 words separated by a space. Far more difficult to run dictionary based attacks.
have your say