Here are some suggestions that can help you to create very secure but easy-to-remember passwords. ____________________________ Find out below how the password "b1r.CnZs" was created and why it's easy to remember. ------- To make a password easy to remember, you can BASE IT on something familiar – like the name of a long lost friend, the name of a painting, a quote, a location that may have special meaning to you (for example "Illinois in the summer"), a location chosen at random by you (for example "Beeler, Kansas"), vegetables or other foods, cars, birds, habits, etc., etc. Good passwords can be created by using randomness or what appears to be randomness. If you make your password a combination of unrelated words, such as a food and the name of a street, it becomes more secure. When using numbers, it's best not to use numbers related to your Social Security number or your birthday as passwords because these numbers are recorded in many places over which you have no control. The following are various ways to ALTER numbers and words to make strong but easy-to-remember passwords. If you want a password that's based on a number, you can change the number into words or letters this way: 1014 = "tenfourteen" (Many situations limit you to eight characters or use only the first eight characters of your password. If limited to eight characters, this password would be "tenfourt".) or this way 1014 = "tenf.our" (Using interuptions in unusual places makes a password more secure. In almost all cases, spaces are not allowed in passwords; so a good alternative is to use a puncuation mark; notice that I dropped "teen" to limit the password to eight characters.) or this way 1014 = "oneoone4" (Mixing words and numbers makes a stronger password; this password and the following passwords all have eight or less characters.) or this way 1014 = "wnOwn4" (Mixing consonant sounds and a capitalized vowel with a number makes a very strong password.) or this way 1014 = "tN.fr.tN" (Using only the consonant sounds of the number "1014" along with upper- and lower-case characters, and punctuation makes a very good password.) or this way "tnfrteen" (I'm using a consonant-only part "tnfr" with a consonant and vowel part "teen".) or this way "tnfrtn24" (I'm using only consonant sounds and a condensed form of the number 1014 (10+14=24).) Et cetera. Using the above combination of strategies can bring about a very secure password because even if a snooper finds out or guesses correctly that your password is based on the number 1014 (which would be very hard to do since it wouldn't be written down), he or she would still have a very hard time getting into your files or accounts. .................. Here are some examples based on words. You can base a password on the street name Cedar Creek this way. "cedrK.rK" or "sdr.K.rK," etc., etc. You can use the phrase Illinois in the summer this way. "isinTEsr" (I'm using the first and last letters of each word in the phrase "illinois in ThE summer". Notice that I used caps to make the password even stronger.) You can use the random location Beeler, Kansas this way. "blr.CnZs" – (The use of no vowels, both upper and lower cases, punctuation, and alternate spellings (the C and the Z) all combine to code the password.) Eight spaces that are coded into what SEEMS to be a random set that's based on a randomly selected word, name, or phrase can make a very-high-quality password and one that's easy to remember. To make the above Beler-Kansas-based password even stronger, throw in a number. "b1r.CnZs" (the number "1" will be easy to remember because it is being substituted for the letter "l"; the number "2" could be used instead of the letter "n" (because the letter "n" has two parts) and the password would become "b1r.C2Zs") Et cetera. There are other ways to code memorable words or numbers into passwords. It's best to not mention any more here. Use your imagination to find more if you wish. You can let your mind wander while pondering the possibilities and see what associations come to mind that can easily be remembered. If the association is far-fetched or humorous, it will probably be more memorable yet harder to guess. What you end up with is a seemingly random set for a password that is easily remembered. ------------- On today's Internet, one tends to build up several accounts and memberships after a year or two. Experts say that it's best if each membership and account has its own password. So what do you do when there are so many? Record them and put them in a fairly secure place, so if you don't remember one, you can round it up quickly. You might want to keep them in an encrypted database, or you may want to do something like the following. It's handy and quick. I'm not sure where the idea came from. I think is was from a spy novel. If you have a lot of books and magazines, you have a great haystack to hide passwords in. Write each password on a post-it® note (post-it® notes will not fall out and they provide plenty of space to record changes and can be moved easily). Include any organizational names, account numbers, handles, etc. on each note. Then mount them in the book you've chosen using maybe two-to-four per page depending on the size of the book. Then as memberships are added, post them. (I do not work for 3M® but I do like post-it® notes.) Very important passwords (like your bank-account password, PGP password, the password to your encrypted password data base, etc.), if written down, can be hidden in a separate encrypted database or a different book or magazine and mounted using a different method. Use only the sticky top part of the post-it® note and go to a page number you cannot forget and mount the passwords parallel and fairly close to the spine of the book (but not too close because later the book or magazine might open too easily to that page). This way, these important passwords will remain unnoticed–unless a search begins where a searcher intends to open fully and observe each page of every book and magazine that you own. (I wonder under what circumstances such a search might take place? Would the fate of the earth have to be at stake or something of that nature? Probably not.) A warning: If passwords are written down, they can be found out without your knowing about it. So I'll remind you again that your most-important passwords should be easy to remember and not recorded. If the password is used infrequently, you may want to record it so that your memory can be refreshed from time to time. If recorded, the password should be well hidden or protected (this means that no one should be able to see what you're doing when you look it up or use it). Keep in mind that if you share your computer, there's software that allows any user to record all of the computer's keystrokes. Also, unless your password is encrypted when it travels over the Internet or over a network, it can be read like a postcard–like everything else that's not encrypted. For the reasons in the above paragraph and others, the experts say that it's a good idea to change your most critical passwords on a regular basis. MM www.soundpuzzle.com Copyright © 2001-2006 by Marvin L Morrison All rights reserved except for your right to reproduce the above article at will providing the use is noncommercial, reproduced without change, in its entirety, and with proper credit. back to the puzzle | to the info page