Password is omnipresent in the digital world. You are required to input your password for a large number of tasks for online experience as well for the offline work such as for login to the Windows or certain software applications. If you chose a weak password, then the very purpose of using a password is lost. It is very essential that you select a strong password for various tasks, especially for the online tasks. The strength of a password will depend upon the length and complexity of the password chosen by you. So, it is necessary to select a strong password of an appropriate length and an appropriate complexity. What are the benchmarks for a strong password?
For a password to be strong, it should normally:
Lower-case letters:
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, …
Upper-case letters:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, …
Numerals:
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
Special characters (i.e., characters other than the letters and numerals):
@ # $ % ` ~ ! ^ & * ( ) _ + – = { } [ ] \ : ” ; ‘ < > ? , . /
Passwords can be the weakest link in the security requirements of a digital world. Strong passwords, which are hard to guess, are important because the tools and computers that people use to guess passwords continue to improve.
A typical password-guessing software uses one of three approaches:
Given enough time, the automated method can guess any password. However, it can still take months or years or thousands or millions or billions or even more number of years to guess a really strong password.
One way to create a strong password is to use a software to generate random passwords for you. Today, many software applications provide in-built facility to create strong passwords of varying lengths and varying complexity. You may make use of this facility for creating strong passwords for your use. However, it may be difficult to remember such lengthy and complex passwords. You may perhaps have to remember or store these passwords in a secure manner, may be by using some appropriate password manager software.
Another way of creating reasonably strong password is to use a long phrase as a password which may be easier to remember and which may at the same time be a strong password. You may consider a phrase which is familiar to you or which you can easily remember. You may also consider using some well-known phrases from some well-known authors, philosophers, scientists, statesmen, and the like, or may be from some well-known book or fiction, etc. But be aware not to adopt a too-well-known phrase which could become very easy for others to guess. If needed, you may make some changes in such well-known phrases to enhance their confidentiality. For example, consider the following phrases:
“Pen is mightier than a sword”
“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”
These or some other similar phrases which you can conceive of can be easy to remember and yet be reasonably good password candidates. In fact, you can be slightly more innovative and make some suitable changes in these phrases by replacing some peculiar characters with some special characters which resemble those peculiar characters so that the whole phrase still remains easy to remember but with highly enhanced security. You can also change some particular characters (may be even inside a word) in the phrase with their upper-case characters or vice-versa. For example, consider the following changes in the aforesaid phrases:
“peN 1s migh!ier th@n a $woRd”
Hint: Here, we have made the following changes:
You can see that some easy-to-remember changes like this, your phrase can become a really strong password, which may be almost impossible to crack.
You can use yet another method to create a strong password from a phrase. You can take the “first character” of every word in a long phrase to create a password. For example, taking the “first character” of every word in the aforesaid second phrase, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind“, we get the following password:
“Tossfmoglfm”
You can make such a password further strong by changing some peculiar characters in it with their similar-looking special characters or numerals or by changing some of the lower-case letters into upper-case letters and vice-versa. This method has already been described above in another context. For example, by making some such changes, the aforesaid password
“Tossfmoglfm”
becomes
“t0$s!Mog1fm”
which, of course, is much more secure now, and not too difficult to remember also in as much as there is a pattern in the manner of its creation which facilitates remembering it.
In fact, you can think of some innovative ideas and make your own standard and easy-to-remember phrases. For example, consider the phrase,
“United States consists of 50 states and its capital is Washington D.C.”
Nobody can guess such a self-constructed phrase. Now, taking the “first character” of every word in the aforesaid second phrase, “United States consists of 50 states and its capital is Washington D.C.”, we get the following password:
“USco5saiciWDC”
By making some changes in this password in the manner indicated above, the aforesaid password
“USco5saiciWDC”
becomes
“u$c05s@ic1WdC”
which, of course, is much more secure now, and not too difficult to remember.
The methods suggested above are only indicative or illustrative and not exhaustive. Think! Think!! Always keep thinking of new ideas to create passwords in an innovative manner.
Use whatever method you wish for creating your passwords, but always remember:
Irrespective of whatever method you use to create a strong password, please remember to remember your password.
Did you like this article? To get all such articles from Tech Superb directly:
Related Articles:
If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.
