Something that I have been thinking about for quite some time is the method of creating the perfect password for those account that I just can not have accessed. While I know of some of the latest trends in password rules make for strong passwords on average, this is not something that I want to limit myself to. I know having a capital letter, at least 8 characters, and a number in the password makes it difficult to hack an account of this type; but as most Computer Forensics junkies know, social engineering is a much more lucrative means of obtaining someone's password. While the arbitrary rules listed above make for a good starting point I would like to give my input as to a few other tricks that can help with the security of a password.
1) Misspellings
One trick I have learned in my time of password use is that when a word in a string of characters making up a password is misspelled, it becomes almost impossible for you to remember even your own password. This can be used to your advantage. Find a word that you personally know that you mess up often. Such words will stick with you, but it is not often that your tell anyone of this weakness. While this use of the word won't help you learn to spell it properly in future writing/typing, it will give you a stronger password.
2) Symbols
Something that is often not brought up in password rules is that some symbols are not allowed in the string of characters for a password. The trick here is that some symbols ARE allowed. It is not always the case, depending on rules set by the admins, but you could have a random symbol separating specific parts of your password in place of a space or any other use. This is a very strong method of securing a password, especially if you use it in a way that most people would find arbitrary.
3) The Past
My last idea is using things from the past as a guide for your password makeup. The trick of this would be to use something from your past that not everyone knew about or things that come from a family specific tradition or something your friend told you that stuck with you for any number of reasons. For example, imagine if you had found a turtle when you were younger in a pond near your house. Let's just say you live in the country... Anyways, your parents were firmly against having pets at the time so you hid him away and fed him in secret. One day the turtle was gone; and while this upset you it was never something your parent's knew of. Even if later in life you had more pets, they would never know the secret name of your hidden pet turtle. This would be a premium name to use for a password, because you are the only (OK...and maybe Joey from down the road...) person who even knows of this pet.
These are just a couple of my more thought out ideas in terms of password security, and is nowhere near an exhaustive list. Some day I may elaborate on this a bit more but for now, try these out and see if your nerd friends can break the new password.
1) Misspellings
One trick I have learned in my time of password use is that when a word in a string of characters making up a password is misspelled, it becomes almost impossible for you to remember even your own password. This can be used to your advantage. Find a word that you personally know that you mess up often. Such words will stick with you, but it is not often that your tell anyone of this weakness. While this use of the word won't help you learn to spell it properly in future writing/typing, it will give you a stronger password.
2) Symbols
Something that is often not brought up in password rules is that some symbols are not allowed in the string of characters for a password. The trick here is that some symbols ARE allowed. It is not always the case, depending on rules set by the admins, but you could have a random symbol separating specific parts of your password in place of a space or any other use. This is a very strong method of securing a password, especially if you use it in a way that most people would find arbitrary.
3) The Past
My last idea is using things from the past as a guide for your password makeup. The trick of this would be to use something from your past that not everyone knew about or things that come from a family specific tradition or something your friend told you that stuck with you for any number of reasons. For example, imagine if you had found a turtle when you were younger in a pond near your house. Let's just say you live in the country... Anyways, your parents were firmly against having pets at the time so you hid him away and fed him in secret. One day the turtle was gone; and while this upset you it was never something your parent's knew of. Even if later in life you had more pets, they would never know the secret name of your hidden pet turtle. This would be a premium name to use for a password, because you are the only (OK...and maybe Joey from down the road...) person who even knows of this pet.
These are just a couple of my more thought out ideas in terms of password security, and is nowhere near an exhaustive list. Some day I may elaborate on this a bit more but for now, try these out and see if your nerd friends can break the new password.
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