In the previous article of the Password 101 series, we’ve identified some serious threats to online security by revealing the most common weaknesses of passwords that a lot of us use. If you haven’t read that article yet, you can click on this link to read it first and find out if your online accounts may be compromised by weak passwords. Otherwise, you can go on and read my guide on how to create a secure password that is strong and easy to remember.
PASSWORD MAKING
- Think of a word that means a lot to you and can easily be remembered. For this example, I am going to use the word “facebook”.
- Invert the word you thought of. My word becomes “koobecaf”
- Randomly select half of those characters and turn them into a symbol, a number, or an uppercase letter. However, avoid making the first letter of the word capital and making the last letter a symbol that is frequently used as punctuation ie. exclamation marks or periods. In my example, my word becomes k0()B3c@F. Notice how I actually converted a letter “o” into two symbols, which are “()”. Creativity equates to security In this case.
- Next, select a part of your string and append it to a web domain. For example, I would use my sample word as a password for Twitter. My password becomes k0()BTWIT. For extra strong passwords, you can change the domain suffix to something like tw1T or Tw!t.
- Do the same for other websites. You can use several special words as appendages depending on website categories. For example, use the prefix ‘y3n0^^’ for banking websites, for the word inverted was actually MONEY. Similarly, you can use ‘lAic0&’ for your social media accounts. And yes, that prefix is an inversion of the word ‘social’.
If you followed those steps then by now you’re on your way to securing your Internet accounts. By extension, your finances, credibility, and sensitive information are now more or less safely tucked in in the confines of their cyber environment. However, making the password is only half the battle. Actually remembering it and using it to log in without the hassle and headache of trying to figure out what password goes in which site is the true test of password competence.
The third and final part of the Password 101 will outline some simple rules on how you can easily manage your new and improved passwords. Conversely, it will also tell you what pitfalls to avoid that will undermine all your hard work in creating a password and making your accounts vulnerable to hacking again.
Do you have any other password or security tips that you want to share? Comment below so that everyone can work forward towards a more secure cyberspace. You can also go ahead and click on this link to go to the third installment of the Password 101 series.