Strong Password Creation Made Easy (and Fun)!

Since the Internet is so heavily used for online banking, shopping, and many other functions that contain sensitive data -- cybercriminals have virtually unlimited opportunities to gain access to one’s personal information online, thus making the creation of strong, unique passwords for personal online accounts evermore vital. However, this can prove challenging, especially when many sites now require users to create passwords that consist of a minimum number of characters that often must contain numbers, letters and symbols. Additionally, to ensure even safer online transactions but to also add more complexity to the task, we’re often advised to create a unique password for each account but not to store them anywhere, rendering the use of the “Forgot your password?” retrieval function common practice. Most people just use one password for all of their online accounts to circumvent this inconvenience. Nonetheless, no matter how inconvenient it may seem to create strong passwords that are unique to each online account, having personal information and perhaps one’s entire identity stolen can prove completely devastating, in contrast making the frustration associated with password creation seem minor.

While not necessarily a method to create passwords that are undoubtedly invulnerable, there is a simple, frustration-free technique that can be used to generate an unlimited number of strong passwords that are also easy to remember. By using a “base term” for each password, one can simply append whichever site name, program, or use to the “base term” and have a different secure password for each online account. For example, if your “base term” is “3disgreat” (as it should be), and you are creating a password for your Yahoo e-mail account, your password could be “3disgreatyahooemail”. Since the password is long and not found in a dictionary, it can be harder to hack by attackers. To make the password even more secure using this same concept, you could use a mixture of numbers, upper and lower case letters and characters for your “base term”, such as “3D1sGr3@t”, which would be a good “base term” that you could then append the site name, program, etc. One could use their age, part of a phone number they know, or even an old address to create a strong “base term”.

Managers can enhance the security of their company’s network by building strong password policies and adding them to the organization’s general policies regarding security that employees read and sign. 3D can help you create a policy that defines your company’s password standards to increase the security of your network. For more information on tools 3D provides to enhance network security, call our office at (360) 671-4906, email us at info@3dcorp.us, or visit our website at http://www.3dcorp.us/.

References: “A Fool Proof Way To Remember Thousands Of Passwords Effortlessly”, MakeTechEasier.com; "The Simplest Security: A Guide To Better Password Practices", Symantec.com