Spent 3 hours making a 'strong' password last week and my brother guessed it on try #2

I thought I was being clever using a line from my favorite obscure poem from 1987, but apparently he knew I was into that poet and just typed in the first stanza, so now I'm wondering if there's a secure way to pick passwords that aren't tied to your actual life history?

4 comments

4 Comments

violar3529d ago

oh man that's rough, i totally get that pain. i had a similar thing happen where i used my cat's name with a number and thought i was safe, but my roommate just watched me type it one time and laughed. it's like no matter how careful you are, someone who knows you can crack it in seconds. i started using a random word generator app and then misspelling one of the words on purpose, plus adding a symbol that doesn't mean anything to me personally.

nathan90129d ago

yeah I've been down that exact road lol. what finally worked for me was taking two totally unrelated words like "cactus" and "zipper" then combining them with a random number from an old sports score I don't care about. the key is picking words that have zero emotional connection to you, so no pet names, street names, or favorite movie quotes. I actually keep a list of random nouns I see on cereal boxes and mix them up every few months. it's way harder for someone to guess "zipper cactus 47" than anything tied to your actual life.

oliverhernandez29d ago

...and that's how you learn that "clever" and "secure" are two different things entirely. My brother-in-law once spent an hour picking a password based on the model number of his first car, then his wife guessed it because she found the old owner's manual in the glove box. @violar35 hit on the real solution - random words with a deliberate misspelling work way better because nobody can guess what you'd change or why, especially if you throw in a symbol that means nothing to you. I'd just add, don't write it on a sticky note and attach it to your monitor like my neighbor does.

oscarc1229d ago

The sticky note thing kills me, I see people do that at the coffee shop I go to and just cringe. It's like you put all that effort into a good password then hand someone the key. Your brother-in-law's story is painfully familiar though, I had a coworker who used his favorite band name and the year they formed, thinking nobody would guess it. Problem was he told everyone that was his favorite band like three times a week. Random words from a cereal box is actually genius, way better than trying to be clever with something that has any connection to your life at all.