Nowadays it is necessary to protect almost all of your web accounts through the use of a secure and strong password. Choosing a password that is difficult to crack requires the ability to create an unlikely combination of letters, numbers and symbols. Fortunately, the process of creating a strong yet easy to memorize password is simple and intuitive.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Basic Rules for Creating and Managing a Password
Step 1. Choose a password that is difficult to guess or crack
Never use words, phrases, or dates that you have given significant importance to, such as your date of birth or that of a family member. This is the type of personal information that anyone can find through a simple search.
Step 2. Never share your passwords
This type of request is often addressed to web account holders and is used by hackers to steal users' identities for illegal purposes.
Step 3. Make sure you are using long enough passwords
A strong password should be at least 8-10 characters long, bearing in mind that the longer it is, the more secure it is. However, some websites or applications impose a limit on the maximum length of login passwords that users can create.
Step 4. Always enter at least one uppercase and one lowercase letter in your passwords
Uppercase and lowercase letters should not be grouped together, but distributed evenly over the entire length of the password. This will make it much more difficult to hack. This type of strategy leads to the creation of passwords such as "GiCaMiGi_22191612" or "CasaGanci # 1500", as shown in detail in the next section of the article.
Step 5. Enter blank spaces in the password
Many security systems do not allow the use of spaces inside the access keys, but it is good to take advantage of this functionality when it is given to us. Alternatively, you can use the special underscore symbol ("_") which performs a very similar function.
Step 6. Create similar but always different passwords to protect separate accounts
To make it easier for you to remember all the passwords you use, but without making them easy to crack, you can choose to use similar base words. The example password "GiCaMiGi_22191612" could be changed to "my childrenGiCaMiGi-90807060", while the password "CasaGanci # 1500" could become "1500 * primaCasaGanci".
Step 7. Make sure you make a note of all your passwords and keep them in a safe place
Choose a spot away from the computer that you normally use (and obviously away from prying eyes), but which can be reached easily in case of need. In case you forget a password, you can easily recover it without any hassle.
When you take note of a password, consider the possibility of encrypting it using a particular pattern in order to make it still secure and difficult for a hypothetical attacker to use. For example, the password "ri7 & Gi6_ll" could be encoded as "2tk9 & Ik8_nn" (where the scheme adopted is indicated by the first character "2"). In this case the number 2 indicates to encode the original letters by replacing them with those present in the two successive positions of the alphabet and to increase each numerical value by 2 units
Method 2 of 3: Create a Secure Password
Step 1. Choose a word or phrase to use as the basis for creating your new password
This is usually a good starting point for a password that is complex and difficult to crack, but easy to memorize and remember. Remember that a strong password must be very long (at least 10 characters) and must consist of a wide variety of elements (upper and lower case letters, symbols, numbers, spaces, etc.). While you shouldn't include personal data and information in a password, to prevent other people from guessing it easily, try to create one that is easy to remember. For this purpose it is good to use a set of words or a phrase that will represent the basis on which to create the complete password.
An example of a useful tool for creating mnemonic phrases is the PAO (from the English "Person-Action-Object") developed by scientists from the American University Carnegie Mellon. This method consists simply in choosing an image or a photograph, easy to memorize, in which there is a person who is carrying out a specific action with a certain object from which then to derive a sentence (funny, complete or nonsense). By selecting a set of characters from the resulting phrase (for example the first 3 letters of each word) you can create a password that can be easily memorized and remembered
Step 2. Use your chosen phrase or statement to build a strong and easy-to-remember password
By selecting a subset of the letters that make up your chosen phrase you will be able to create a password that is easy to memorize (for example, using only the first 2-3 characters of each word and joining them in the correct order). Make sure your chosen phrase contains uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Step 3. Create a complex but mnemonic sequence of words or letters
To do this, you can use a series of words or a phrase that may seem random on the surface, but is still easy to memorize. This sequence of letters will represent the "base word" to which symbols and numbers will then be added to obtain the complete password.
For example, if your children are named Giacomo, Cassandra, Michele and Gianni you could use the word "gicamigi" as the basis for the password (obtained from the combination of the first 2 letters of each name). If the first house you lived in was in via Ganci, you can use "casaganci" as a starting word
Step 4. Enter at least one letter, one number and one special character into the chosen password
It is possible to add an underscore (or other punctuation symbol) and numbers to obtain the password "gicamigi_22191612". Alternatively, you can use another symbol to get "Hook House # 1500".
Step 5. Remember the new password obtained
For example, from a sentence like "My mother was born in Milan, Italy, on January 27" it is possible to derive a password like the following: "MmènaMI, ITiG27". Another example sentence would be "The radio show starts at 9:10 am on Monday, Wednesday and Friday" from which you could get the password "Ipri @ 0910L, M&V".
Step 6. To insert special symbols into your new password, consider using your computer's "Character Map" or "Character Range" (optional step)
The "Character Map" is a Windows tool that you can access from the Start menu, by choosing the "Programs" item, clicking the "Accessories" submenu, selecting the "System Tools" option and finally choosing the "Map of characters ". MacOS or OS X users must access the "Edit" menu, located at the top of the desktop, and choose the "Special Characters" item. To make a password more secure and difficult to guess, you can replace some letters with symbols.
- These symbols can be used to replace commonly used characters. However, remember that some websites do not allow you to create passwords using all the symbols available. Using the advice in this passage, the word "Sunshine" could become "ЅϋΠЅЂιηξ".
- Remember that in reality, when you create and use a password, it must be typed correctly within the website or app to which it refers, so carefully evaluate the difficulties associated with having to type the password created when you choose symbols or special characters from the "Character Map". On balance, you may find that using this extra step is just a waste of time.
Step 7. Don't forget to change your passwords regularly
In today's technological world, experience teaches that it is good not to use a single password to protect different accounts and that those in use should be changed regularly every 3-6 months.
Method 3 of 3: Use a Software Password Generator
Step 1. Choose a program designed specifically for managing passwords
Typically, software of this type allows you to manage a wide range of passwords (for both applications and websites) simply by entering a single "master" password, greatly simplifying the process of storing and organizing this vital information. These software are capable of generating, storing and monitoring a wide variety of complex, strong and diverse passwords required for access to all your accounts and applications. You will then be released from any burdensome storage and management process, simply having to remember the master password with which to access the program. Here is a short list of the most known and used software by users: LastPass, Dashlane, KeePass, 1Password and RoboForm. There are numerous articles and sites on the web that offer comprehensive reviews of these and other software to choose from.
Step 2. Download and install the selected program
The specific instructions to follow obviously vary based on the software you choose, so be sure to follow them very carefully. In general, you need to access the site that distributes the program, select the "Download" button to download the installation file to your computer and follow the instructions on the screen from the installation wizard. Make sure you download the correct version for your operating system from your computer.
Step 3. Configure the software
Again, the specific process varies from program to program. However, the idea behind it is to create a master password (complex and strong) that protects access to the software, so all you have to do is create and organize all the passwords you need to secure the your accounts and your web applications. Most of these programs are very intuitive and easy to use to perform the main functions.
Step 4. Customize the configuration settings
Most of the best programs available offer the ability to access all passwords locally via the computer on which they are installed or to synchronize information with other devices. Be prepared to evaluate and choose which option best suits your needs. Normally it is also possible to configure the chosen software so that it automatically logs in to the sites for which it has memorized the access passwords, while also managing the level of reliability, complexity and robustness and providing for their modification on a regular basis when necessary.
Advice
- Get in the habit of regularly changing any passwords you normally use to access sensitive data or web services, or whenever you think someone has hacked your account. Also, never reuse a password you have used in the past. In some countries and some companies, laws and internal security regulations require you to change your login credentials on a regular basis.
- Using accented letters can make finding a password much more difficult.
- Try using this simple password construction mechanism: start by choosing any word, for example "money", continue writing it backwards (idlos), then insert a date between one letter and another. For example, assuming you use the following date February 5, 1974, the resulting password could be "ifebd5l19o74s". It is obvious that such a password is not very mnemonic, but it is also practically impossible to break.
- Choose to protect your internet accounts with strong and different passwords. Access to the online bank account, e-mail boxes, social networks, etc. should be protected by unique and different passwords. It is a good rule not to use the same password to protect your home banking account and your e-mail account.
- A password should never show the name of the person it belongs to or the username of the account it protects.
- Do not compose passwords using easy-to-find personal information, such as your name, date of birth, or a date that you value importantly. The resulting password would be much easier to crack than one that was created with random information.
- To increase the level of confidence, try to use words or entire sentences that don't make sense. Then combine them with numbers to make them secure, strong and easy to remember passwords, such as "brickbeak9468".
- Hackers typically use "exhaustive search" (better known as "brute force") methods and tools to crack passwords, which involves testing all possible combinations of letters, numbers and symbols. This means that the longer and more complex the password, the longer it takes to identify it.
- If you have decided to put the passwords you use to protect your data in writing, don't forget where you have chosen to keep them.
Warnings
- Do not communicate to anyone the access passwords with which you protect your data, some attacker may be listening while you are talking or the person to whom you have communicated this precious information could let it slip (intentionally or accidentally) during a conversation.
- Do not use any of the passwords shown as an example in this article. Obviously, being in the public domain, anyone could easily guess them.
- Do not write down passwords that you normally use, in places that are easy for other people to access, as they could be easily found.
- Avoid using web services that, after requesting the reset of the access password (via the "Forgot password?" Button), instead of sending you a temporary code or a link to immediately change the current password by e-mail, send you the original one. This type of mechanism means that the website in question stores the passwords of its users in clear text or using a simple encryption system. In other words, it means that the passwords for accessing the service in question are not stored with an acceptable level of security.
