Article - 12/99 - Secure Passwords Simplified

Secure Passwords Simplified

It's easier than you think to have a more secure password. Unfortunately, most people choose easy-to-guess passwords because they're worried about keeping track of and / or forgetting them. However, there are a few tricks that will allow you to create very difficult-to-guess passwords that are a snap to remember:

Use acronyms. Pick a favorite line from a book, song, or movie, and turn it into a password (Example: "Sl,atfatf." = "So long, and thanks for all the fish.") Feel free to add punctuation; it greatly increases the strength of the password. At the very least throw in a period at the end. Consider, though, that if you're famous (or infamous!) for always using a certain phrase, then that would obviously be a bad choice.
Get creative: use '4' instead of 'for', '8' instead of 'ate', '&' instead of 'and', etc. (Example: "Sl,&t4atf." = "So long, and thanks for all the fish" - even better than the first one).
Use hacker-style spellings to turn ordinarily bad passwords into reasonably good ones. Use the following letter substitutions 1=i, 3=e, 4=a, 5=s, 7=t 0=O (zero = the letter 'O'). Use 'z' instead of 's' for plurals, and use 'ph' instead of 'f' (Example: "Artichoke" = "4r71ch0k3", "Freaks" = "Phr34kz").
Combine all three techniques to give an intruder a real headache (Example: "707wh2p1:p1." = "The only thing we have to fear is: fear itself." Remember, 'p' is short for the 'ph' substitution for 'f').
Keep in mind that the absolute best passwords contain a combination of numbers, symbols (punctuation), upper- and lower-case letters, and are 8 or more characters long (see #6 below for a special rule for Windows-based passwords). These guidelines are general in nature, so be sure to ask your systems administrator if any other specialized rules should be applied when choosing your passwords. Never write your passwords down. And never, ever give out your passwords to anyone unless you've carefully verified that they're authorized to know it.
Except in certain extraordinary situations, passwords that are used to access Windows NT and Windows 2000-based services (including Citrix WinFrame/MetaFrame and Windows Terminal Server) should always be exactly 7 or 14 characters in length.

Next Article - Backing Up Software Registry Settings

Articles (C) 1999-2000 Praecelsus Consulting, Inc. All Rights Reserved, however, permission is granted to copy and distribute this article verbatim for non-commercial purposes as long as the author (Erik Carlseen / Praecelsus Consulting, Inc.) and source (www.praecelsus.com) are attributed and specified.