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We all know that it’s
dangerous to use the same password for more than one
program. If you sign up for a program run by someone of
low moral fibre, what is to stop them running through
various programs with your username and password to see
what they can access?
But of course remembering
all the different passwords can be a headache. And writing
them down somewhere isn’t a great deal safer than using
the same password again and again.
You can buy software that
stores the passwords for you, but do you really want to
pay money for another piece of software that performs a
solitary function?
Try this simple, two-step,
technique that lets you generate an infinite number of
passwords, without having to remember any of them.
Step One:
Choose a 4-6 letter word or number sequence that you can
remember easily. Needless to say, don’t reveal this to
anyone. For the purpose of this demonstration, I’ll
choose the word "cash"
Step Two:
Apply this secret word or number sequence to the name of
the program you are setting up the password for.
To accomplish this, invent
a couple of easy to remember rules.
Rule 1:
Decide which part of the program name you are going to
use. It could be the whole name, the first 6 letters of
the name, the last 8 letters of the name. It’s totally
up to you, be as creative as you like.
eg – For the program
TrafficSwarm, I might choose the first 8 letters of the
name. This give me: "traffics"
Rule 2:
Take the portion of the program name you have selected and
merge it with your secret word or number sequence to
create a unique password. Again, be as creative as you can
with this rule. You could replace every second letter,
every third letter, every vowel or every consonant.
eg – If I replace every
second letter of "traffics" with my secret word
"cash", I get " t c a a
f s c h "
or
- If I replace every vowel
of "traffics" with my secret word
"cash", I get " t r c f f a
c s ". The "s" and the "h" are
not used as "traffics" has only two vowels, but
some words will use all four letters of "cash".
Some words might have more than four vowels, in which case
just start back at the beginning with "c" and
"a" and so on…
You don’t have to worry
about making your rules overly complex. Even the best
code-breakers would need to see several of your passwords
before they could start to guess what you rules are.
As long as you keep your
rules safe and sound, your password is secure. But the
real beauty of this system, is that you don’t have to
remember the passwords you create. You ONLY have to
remember the rules.
When you log into the
program the next time, just apply your rules to the
program name, and you can work out what password you
generated. Once you have been using the rules for a while,
you’ll generate the password in your head, without even
having to pause.
Don’t worry if it seems a
little complicated at first. Read this article through a
couple more times and then try this technique with just a
couple of programs. Once you are happy with it, all
that’s left to do is to start working your way through
existing programs and update your passwords. It’s time
consuming, but for peace of mind you’ll be glad you did.
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About
The Author
David
Congreave is owner of The
Nettle Ezine, the newsletter for the
home business -- online. David lives
in Leeds, in the United Kingdom, with his
wife Leanne. |
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