How to create a strong password?

Your password is stupid. You know that. It’s also very old. And you use the same password everywhere. Once, you made an account on sosasta.com, their database got hacked, they send you an email, you probably didn’t notice, and they rebranded themselves as crazeal.com. Now, bad people have your password, which you also use for facebook/email. And your relatives are being sent emails, telling them you are in need of money. If not, it’s going to happen soon. Unless, you change your password. And do it frequently.

Today is Change Your Password Day, so lets see what you can do to make your password more secure.

1. Do not use any of these passwords – 20 Most Common Passwords of all time or Top 500 Worst Passwords

2. You could use apps to remember your passwords, such as the new hot startup Dashlane‘s password manager or Roboform / 1password etc. You just need to remember one super password and in return, all your accounts will have complicated passwords that are combinations of lower case/upper case letters, numbers and symbols, that you can not possibly remember. The problem with using these you need to have these installed on every computer/mobile/tablet you use. Which can be a problem if you use internet from different locations [ such as cyber cafes ].

3. xkcd Password Generator

If you wish to have a strong password, that is hard to crack, but easy to remember, try this –

The cool thing is, making your password even one letter long, increases the time require to crack, exponentially.

If you want to use this technique, but your vocab is smaller than 3 words, try this tool – passphra.se

4. Song Line Acronym Leat Speak method SL4LS

Pick a line from a song/movie, and take the first letters of every word. You now have a pretty strong password, that is difficult to crack. To make it more secure, convert it to Leat Speak.

For example – Lets pick a line from Face Down by Red JumpSuit Apaaratus

If You Wade Around Forever You Will Surely Drown = IYWAFYWSD

Now, to leet-ify this, swith A with a 4, I with a 1, and you get = 1YW4FYWSD

Which is a very strong password, and yet is easy to remember.

If you know any other techniques to make your password more secure, leave them in the comments below.