How To: Create Interesting Passwords in 3 Easy Steps

Been hacked once? Twice? Maybe more? You thought abc123 was the only password that is both 6 characters wide and easy to remember? I have some suggestions in store for you. Just read on...

An Introduction

There are passwords that look tremendously sexy (as opposed to gibberish), yet so secure that they become a hacker's nightmare. For example:

• n0body_w@nt_you
• ain1_thi$_s3xy?
• @cces$_d3n1ed
• And many more...

I am going to show you how to create one.

Steps for Creating a Brilliant Password

Step 1 Think of something that you can remember easily

Choose a word or a pair of words that you can easily remember. It can be monkey as well. :) (If this doesn't sound funny to you, check out web's most stupid passwords here.)

I chose 'Fallen Angels' as an example. Now, don't try to hack me with these words. These are not really my favorites. I just remembered 'Flesh of the Fallen Angels' from Max Payne (the game).

So this is your initial password:

Fallen Angels

Now we are going to apply some transformations on it.

Step 2 Add some special characters

The letter 'A' and the special character '@' are similar, right? And '$' can easily replace an 'S', no problemo!

Fallen Angels -> Fallen_Angels -> Fallen_@ngel$

See? The password is already much harder to crack.

Step 3 Add some digits

Try some leetspeak. For example, use '1' instead of 'l' and '3' instead of 'e'.

Fallen_@ngel$ -> Fa1l3n_@ng3l$

Now this is something that is almost impossible to crack (It would take 7 billion years). You can verify that by going to HowSecureIsMyPassword.Net.

You get the idea, right? Best of luck in choosing a s3cur3 (and brilliant!) password next time you create an account somewhere, \m/.

Tips

• There is also a simpler method for generating secure passes. Tools like PCTools' Secure Password Generator allows us to generate purely random passwords like gf58byd##. But if you'd like to remember all your passwords then the above method is your best bet.

Warnings

• Do use different passwords for different sites. Otherwise if someone hacks your Facebook account will also have access to your Gmail account, bank account and the like.
• Be sure to use the on-screen keyboard provided by your banking site when entering passwords (not the one that comes with Windows). It provides extra protection from keyloggers.

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