adminTonderai Rutsito Business Correspondent
Most people who have email or Facebook accounts tend to opt for simple passwords that they can easily remember. They fear that if they opt for complicated passwords, they might forget them and this will result in them being locked out. I know of a lot people who have passwords that are so simple, which actually defeats the whole purpose of having one in the first place.
Others literary give away the password.
Imagine walking to a computer monitor and seeing a sticker written “password: iloveyou”.
These are obvious signs that the person has literally given up on taking responsibility to secure his/her computer or at least try to keep it a secret.
This is in violation of the simple rules of passwords, one of which is that a password has to be kept private. It is just like your toothbrush, you do not share it with anyone.
Passwords are designed to protect information that we hold dear and therefore it is essential that you come up with a password that is difficult to crack.
I believe that a password should be complicated to the extent that even someone who is watching you typing it in will still not be able to memorise it a few seconds after you hit the enter button.
This is the kind of a password which will ensure that you are more secure.
The catch, however, is that it should be difficult for others to crack but easy for you to remember.
Instead of using the traditional words, how about using your own passphrase which you know you can’t forget, to create your own passwords.
Sentimental names, occasions such as birthdays or those memorable events can actually be used to create the most secure password.
However, adhering to the general premise that passwords should be long and have a mixture of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols, might be a challenge. For instance a password Gobbledygook can be hard to remember.
The trick to creating a password is coming up with a very simple sentimental phrase, then use the first letter of each word, number or symbol from each word in the phrase, keeping punctuation intact.
For example:
My daughter’s name is Gwynn, born December 27, 2014! The password will be MdniG,bD272014!
This is a long, complicated and secure password which even, you the owner may not be able to remember if you forget the phrase that you used to create it.
You can create any phrase and train yourself to memorise the phrase, not the password.
The best bet is to simply change your current password to your own passphrase by describing it then you apply the same method to create a new secure password.
The writer can be contacted at technomag.co.zw or you can tweet @TechnoMagZw
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