In this day and age of security breaches we are confronted by secure passwords. I know keeping track of these passwords is a bitch and will be discussing this in a minute but for now I think it best to give some advice on strong passwords. We know what weak passwords are and if you don't refer to this list of examples 25 most popular and worst passwords 2011. We also know that using important dates or places is a horrible idea, News Dude Dave talked about Social Hacking on CoffeeTalk. Using these types of passwords can be gained by social hacking so stay away. So what makes up a strong password? Microsoft offers a few ideas: HERE But I like to take additional steps.

1337sp34k: If you can read that you are half way there. Hackers turned to 31337 Or more grammatically correct terms of Elite Speak in the 80's and 90's as a means of communication for those who thought they were special privileged. You can use this same against them in creating stronger passwords because YOU become 133t and for a hacker to guess your speak could be made more difficult then worth the effort.

So a variation of those examples MS uses in the link above could be by using 1337:

Replace numbers for letters in your phrase: Complexpasswordsaresafer = C0mpl3xp4ssw0rds4r3s4f3r.

You can even get more creative then that with 1337 but a phrase that is unique to you. I would even suggest using Special Characters to foil brute force password hacking for instance:

Using special characters: !@#$%^&*()-+

Complexpasswordsaresafer = C0mpl3x%p4ssw0rds4r3s4ff3r!

Holy Pope Poop! That's enough to make your eyes cross! And may keep you safe against brute force hacking. But how do you keep track of these nutty passwords you are creating and keep that list safe? I use KeePass and also sync that to my Android Droid3 phone with the free Keepass app from the Market. mdean could possibly offer a few more suggestions and between these choices you could find out what works for you. But I suggest some sort of excrypted locker for your list you then really only have to "remember" one 1337 password.

Let me know your thoughts on password safety.

Stay safe in the New Year.

After Mr. Funky's email account was hacked into last year, a good friend shared some of these same types of tips with us and I changed the passwords on some of my more important accounts. But this is a reminder that I need to change a few others. After more coffee, I'll get on it. KeePass looks interesting. Thanks for the tips so we have a safer 2012.

Excellent tutorial, 5th.

The only thing I would add, which may or may not be obvious... use a unique password on every site you belong to. If, for whatever reason, someone hacks your GHT password, you wouldn't want them to be able to use that same password on Amazon and PayPal.

Second, do not store passwords in browsers. Even your own. If your computer is stolen or compromised, those passwords can all be retrieved if they have been stored. When the computer asks to save your password, select NEVER. The other benefit to this is that it will force you to remember your passwords so if you need them on someone else's PC you will actually know it.

One of the best ways to ensure you will remember your password, or at least the premise it's based on, is to play word association with the site you're logging into. Rather than always use the kids or the pets or your car model, etc. use something that the name of the site triggers. For example, if I were logging into Yahoo!... First thing I think of is their annoying commercial where they yodeled Yahoooooooo... so maybe I'd start with "yodeling" and end up with "y0d3L1ng". That would barely make the cut, though, because it's only 8 characters, and that should be a minimum.

Take special precaution for email passwords. If someone can crack your email, they can get most other passwords by using the Forgot Password link on other sites and getting the password reset sent to your email address.

Lastly, KeePass rocks!

It's like we're The Screen Savers on GHT!


Man alive, That was a great show.