Phrases make excellent passwords. The example I give is Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927. Which when translated to password is:baseballRuth60HR@1927
Easy to remember, impossible to guess and takes a century to crack using brute force.
The problem with some sites is the restrictions they put on passwords: they MUST have two lower case, two uppercase, two numbers, two punctuation marks and blah de blah making it very difficult to come up with a memorable password. Then they make you change it every two weeks even if there has been no compromises.
IF anything leads to writing down your password, these practices do. I have spreadsheet 4 pages long with all my passwords.
And the stupidest restriction of all is limiting the length: it must be between 6 and 14 characters. HELLO HACKERS, we just made your life a lot easier! I can understand a minimum length, but the max length should be something like 255 characters.
Eons ago, I had to remember both passwords and safe combinations & hated it. So, I made up names and phone numbers for each and entered them in my personal phone book. Hackers weren’t a big problem back then so it worked well.
Barker62 over 9 years ago
Huh?
Olddog1 over 9 years ago
2tsebpbplmsp ?
Dragonfly1970 over 9 years ago
That would be a great password for my hubby. lol
Zen-of-Zinfandel over 9 years ago
Moderately indulgent
dflak over 9 years ago
Phrases make excellent passwords. The example I give is Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs in 1927. Which when translated to password is:baseballRuth60HR@1927
Easy to remember, impossible to guess and takes a century to crack using brute force.
The problem with some sites is the restrictions they put on passwords: they MUST have two lower case, two uppercase, two numbers, two punctuation marks and blah de blah making it very difficult to come up with a memorable password. Then they make you change it every two weeks even if there has been no compromises.
IF anything leads to writing down your password, these practices do. I have spreadsheet 4 pages long with all my passwords.
And the stupidest restriction of all is limiting the length: it must be between 6 and 14 characters. HELLO HACKERS, we just made your life a lot easier! I can understand a minimum length, but the max length should be something like 255 characters.
Observer fo Irony over 9 years ago
No if only I could remember my federal tax password, I could change it to MYtx$</=:(.
paullp Premium Member over 9 years ago
It seems to be a good password: it includes a number, a special character (&) and it’s long and complicated but easy to remember.
dzw3030 over 9 years ago
Eons ago, I had to remember both passwords and safe combinations & hated it. So, I made up names and phone numbers for each and entered them in my personal phone book. Hackers weren’t a big problem back then so it worked well.
Imacyn over 9 years ago
But is it & or and?