Password Phrasing
Author: Rob Atkinson of Potent Products
Hard to Remember Passwords
Password: !x=$Acz*lL##00
The above is similar to what you might see when using a program to generate a Password or when it is provided by a Hoster. It is 14 characters long and can be considered a very safe & secure Password. Trouble is, it is highly unlikely you could ever remember it.
Easy to Remember Passwords
Password: mniroopp.com
This Password is 12 characters long and also considered a very safe & secure password. This one though, was created by using what is known as "password phrasing" and is very easy to remember — for me. The idea is to use a sentence that makes sense to you and shorten it to just the first letter of every word. The easy to remember Password was created by using this sentence:
my name is rob owner of potentproducts.com
It is suggested to use phrasing that is common to you. For myself, dealing with code all day, it is easier to use small letters for each word. You can see the end of the Password uses .com. If the Domain name ended in .net then I would probably use that instead. Helps to keep the Domain names separated.
eMail Passwords
It is common to have Mailboxes that are used by Employees, Family Members, Friends, etc. These have a tendency to require Password changes and sometimes quite frequently. In these situations you can easily remove old passwords and create new ones that cannot be easily guessed by others.
Password: email?ab*1234
This could be for each employee using the last 4 digits of their Security Number or Employee number within your Company.
Password: ab?1999*xxx
This could be for each family member using their Initials, their year of Birth and your own personal access code.
Password: Bill?yyyy*xxx
This could be for a friend using their First Name, 4 characters you asked them for — which is easy for them to remember — and your own personal access code.
Password Caveats
Passwords should always be at least 8 characters in length and include more than just Alpha characters (A-Z or a-z). By using 8 or more characters and adding at least one special character, you greatly increase the complexity of the password. This makes it very difficult for others to guess or someone to crack using some sort of program/script.
