I don’t often post stuff like this in this space. But after seeing the click-throughs on the Sony story below, I get the impression folks are interested. I thought maybe I’d share with my readers how to make a very, very strong password that’s very easy to remember:
Analysis of passwords in Sony security breach.
First step is to pick out a favourite song and a favourite line from the song. Preferably, it should be a pretty short line, between say 6 and 15 words. For this we will use “Mary had a little lamb, its fleece was white as snow.” Lets take the first letter from each word, and we’ll end up with:
MHALLIFWWAS
Already you have a password that looks random. And its not easily guessed as would be the name of your first-born child or your dog: that makes it virtually “social engineering” proof. You’re well on your way!
Next, we’ll substitute a few numbers or punctuation marks for letters they kinda look like. Replace the “I” with a “!” (like an upside down, lower case i, get it?). Replace the “S” with a “5”:
MHALL!FWWA5
Now, we’ll only capitalize a few significant initials: “L”amb and “F”leece will do the trick. Make everything else lower case:
mhalL!Fwwa5
Bingo! Good enough for Windows, Mac, Unix or your bank account (but don’t be stupid and use this password!).
2 replies on “Complex Passwords Made Simple”
What a great idea Tom. Thanks – Nance
[…] But as I say, you are not in fact the NSA (unless of course you are, in which case… hi!). You don’t need to be Fort Knox online, you just need to follow a few basic procedures to keep the lower-level thugs and hooligans stymied, because the big boys don’t have time for you. But seeing as how we’re in the middle of something of a cyberwar with Anonymous and LulzSec and the rest, its worth the piece of mind to just make sure you are following those rules. First and foremost, people, get yourself a few decent passwords. […]