Essential Password Security | Part Two
In the last video, we left you with a long list of requirements to keep yourself secure. Thanks for coming back to join us so we can help you see how doable this can be.
How to Memorize Passwords
The right solution here is to only have a small number of passwords that you memorize and to save all the rest in a secure password manager. For now, let’s talk about these passwords you’ll need to memorize while making them long and unique from each other. Examples of these will be:
- The one to get into your password manager
- The one for your work computer and work email (these are often the same password)
- The one for your personal computer
- Those few other passwords that you type very frequently into something other than a browser.
What Is a Strong Password?
Alright, so why do they need to be long? Well, hackers have demonstrated that, if they put full resources into the effort, they can crack shorter passwords quickly even if they are complex, but longer yet simple passwords are very difficult. So, although a password like “a)ik39c^” may be at risk, a password like “yellowturtlecedarcastle” is pretty secure.
Now, putting four random words together is pretty good, but even better are passphrases or pass sentences. They may be long, but they will be easy to remember and hard to crack. Now, you may be limited in the characters you can use, since some will allow special characters and even spaces, while others may only allow letters and numbers. That said, here are some examples to help inspire you:
- Winstonlovesbellyscratches (25 characters, upper and lower case letters only)
- Canyouhearmy5children (21 characters, UC, LC, and number)
- Losetwentypoundsin2020! (23 characters, UC, LC, number, and special character)
- What do I have to do today? (27 characters, UC, LC, number, special character, and spaces)
Give this a try today! Start with one and get comfortable with it. Your personal computer might be a good place to start.
Again, my next video will talk about password managers. Until then, stay safe and remember, it doesn’t matter how difficult your password is to crack if you hand it over to the bad guys by typing it in after a phishing email gets you to their fake login page. Stay vigilant, my friends.