I promised myself that I’d write a post on this topic since God knows when, just never got to do it.
But there was a recent incident in the messageboard where we think a couple of users’ passwords were compromised. Of course we won’t discount the possibilty of a security exploit, but since the accounts were isolated, I’m inclined to think the former. So no better time than now to make good on that promise.
There’s a lot one can say about what you should NOT use as a password (e.g. common words, birth-dates, personal identification information, etc.), but instead of restating the obvious, I thought I’d talk about what you could do with your current weak (but memorable) password and beef it up.
Ultimately, it is accepted that randomness is the key to password strength. So the natural goal is to make one’s password as random as possible.
Unfortunately, not everyone has perfect memory, hence it’s a sad reality that people will choose passwords that they can remember; and that usually means choosing really simple ones at that.
But there is a way to create [somewhat] secure passwords which are also memorable.
Don’t believe me? Read on.