Time to Update My Password

For the past couple of days, my Windows machine has been warning me that my password is about to expire. Today I finally decided to change it. I have three different passwords that I have used on this machine already and I was hoping to just recycle one of them. Unfortunately Windows keeps track of my last five passwords and so I couldn't. It was time to come up with something new.

Previously I mentioned using an old locker combination and this crossed my mind. I wanted to do something a bit different and so I decided to try something else. I am sure others have the same issue and so I thought I would write about some ideas for coming up with memorable passwords.

Passwords should be a word or phrase that you will remember but are impossible to guess. You should also never use a word found in a common dictionary. So how are you supposed to remember your password if it is not in a dictionary? This is where you get creative.

First, I like to come up with a hobby or interest such as football. Then I choose a word or phrase longer than six letters associated with that interest such as:

touchdown

Next I replace certain letters with numbers that look like letters. I am always confusing the letter O and the number zero and so that is a good starting place. You can also replace the letter E with the number 3 or the letter L with the number one. Doing this leads to:

t0uchd0wn

I also like to capitalize at least one letter in the password. This leads to:

t0uchD0wn

I also like to include at least one special character. The "at" sign or @ is always a good replacement for the letter A, but I don't have any of those in my example. We could add an underscore between "touch" and "down". My personal preference is to add an exclamation point after such an event and so my password might look like this:

t0uchD0wn!

Now if I was to go back and create a password cracking program, it would take a lot of different permutations to guess this one. That makes it a good password. Throw in that it is easy to remember and I am ready to use it.

Now comes the full disclosure. I do like football, but not enough to use "touchdown" as my password. So if you ever try to break one of my passwords, it won't be this one.