six sexy ways to create ahack-proof password

1. The Condensed senTenCe soluTion

2. The ArbiTrAry PAssPhrAse PArAdigm

3. The Two-word shuffle subTerfuge

4. The one-sPACe-over oPerATion

5. The wheel of forTune ConfigurATion

6. The my fAvouriTe line reCombinATion

Password security is crucial in today’s digital age. your passwords enable access to your bank, credit card information and much more. hackers have tools that can attempt thousands of logins per hour by generating passwords based on your personal information, from phone numbers and addresses to children’s names and birthdays.

once a hacker has just one of your logins, he can usually access more of your private information and wreak havoc on your personal and financial life.

here are six ways to devise super-strong, secure passwords and beat hackers at their own game.

1. The Condensed senTenCe soluTion

Think of a sentence that’s easy for you to remember. maybe it’s something like “my mother was the very best pastry cook in all of wales”. now take the first letter of each word and turn the sentence into a password.in this case, your password would be“mmwtvbpciaow”.

At 12 characters, this is a very strong password. if you want to add a number and a symbol, just slightly alter your sentence to “my mother was the # 1 pastry cook in all of wales” for an easy-to-remember, hack proof password that reads, “mmwt#1pciaow”.

2. The ArbiTrAry PAssPhrAse PArAdigmone way to create an all but uncrackable passphrase that you’ll have no trouble remembering is by juxtaposing entirely random words that only make sense to you.

for example, say you like cats. And your grandfather was a plumber. And you went to germany for your gap year. And your favourite food is shellfish.

now construct a phrase with this information. such as “kittywrenchautobahnlobster”. or “felinewCoktoberfestprawns”. in two seconds, you’ll have your new password memorised, but the likelihood of anyone guessing it is next to nil.

Pick two words that mean something to you. what are your favourite pastimes? football and bowling? now combine them into one word by alternating their letters. That gives you “fbooowtlbianlgl”.

it might take you a few minutes to get the hang of typing it, so try typing “f o o t b a l l” and then filling in the spaces with the letters in “bowling”. you’ll catch on.

3. The Two-word shuffle subTerfuge

4. The one-sPACe-over oPerATion

Choose a simple, easy to remember password, but whenever you type it, put your fingers on the wrong keys either one key to the left or right. let’s try one key to the right. suddenly an easy-to-guess password like “ilovespaghetti” becomes “o;pbrd[shryyo” , which is pretty uncrackable.

one caveat: this is obviously not the ideal solution for a two finger typist.

Another hard to crack option is to pick a pattern on the keyboard and just start typing. for example, by typing a counter-clockwise circle around the letter d, you could obtain «rewsxcvf». likewise, a clockwise jaunt around the letter k could result in “kjuiol,m”.

your only job is to remember where you started, what direction you went in, and where you stopped. easy, right? or was it left?

5. The wheel of forTune ConfigurATion

D

6. The my fAvouriTe line reCombinATionPick a favourite line from a book, a film, a poem, even a nursery rhyme. let’s try it with the famous line from forrest gump: «life is a box of chocolates, forrest. you never know what you’re gonna get.» now choose two letters that you’ll replace with numbers. not the usual “3” for “e”: be creative!

let’s use 5 for the letter i, and 8 for the letter g. next, just as in The Condensed sentence solution, type the first letter of each word, but replace e with 5 and g

with 8. here’s your new password: “l5abocfynkwy88”. it’ll take a bit of getting used to, but soon it will become second nature. And pick your own favourite line – hackers know the most famous ones!

now ThAT you’ve goT A hACk-ProofPAssword sysTem ...

...you probably think you have to create a new one for each of your accounts. but there’s an easy trick you can use that not only lets you reuse your killer password for other sites but actually makes them even stronger!

Just take the first three letters of the site or service you’re using and add them to the beginning or end of your amazing, bullet-proof password. let’s use your “felinewCoktoberfestprawns” password as the root. on Amazon, your password could be “felinewCoktoberfestprawnsAmA”; for your online bank account, it could be “bnkfelinewCoktoberfestprawns”;

The all caps appended letters boost your security. you can use this method for online shopping, social networks, whatever you want. it’s like having a thousand unforgettable, unhackable passwords!

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