How to Create a Hacker-Resistant Password

Posted October 23, 2009 | Laura Christianson

A-Z social media tips from BloggingBistro.com - H is for Hacker PreventionDid you know that identity thieves use password-hacking software to break into your site?

The Fall 2009 issue of USAA Magazine gives three good tips for creating hacker-resistant passwords:

1.  Lengthy.

At least eight characters.

2.  Multi-character

A combo of numbers, symbols, punctuation, uppercase and lowercase letters.

3.  Memorable.

Build your super-long password around a sentence. For example, “In Super Bowl 43, Pittsburgh defeated Arizona 27 to 23” becomes ISB43,PdA27t23.

Daniel Scocco of DailyBlogTips suggests developing your own password algorithm (and he explains how to do it in his helpful article).

One of Daniel’s readers, Dean at ProCopyTips, suggested an algorithm I like:

Use the longest password you can… Length is more important than complexity because if someone is going to use brute force to break your password, they’re probably going to work through all available characters. A password that is 10 to 12 characters is very hard to break. Get it up to 20 characters, and it become nearly unbreakable.

All you really need is a “pass phrase” that is variable. For example, make up a sentence you can remember but which others can’t guess: My cat Smoochy has 9 lives and 4 legs. Take the first letter or numeral of each word: McSh9la4l. That gives you 9 characters.

Now add the name of the website: Key Word Suggestion Tool. This translates to KWST. Put your pass phrase together with the site name and you get McSh9la4lKWST. So your password is 13 characters and strong. Make it more complex or longer if you choose.

It’s also a good idea to create different passwords for the sites you use most, such as your Web site, blog, Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. That way, if hackers breach one of your sites, they can’t get in to all your others.

Let’s hear from you, readers. Are your passwords hacker-resistant? Please share the methods that work for you.

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10 responses to “How to Create a Hacker-Resistant Password”

  1. flory says:

    i m sure my password is hacker-resistant. in the past yahoo used to give you a unique password when you were making a new account.

    mine was something like: stifr324mgs6690.

    i memorized it and i keep using it, without any incidents yet. the fact that i haven’t note it down anywhere, (it’s written just in my brain cells), makes it even stronger!

  2. flory says:

    i m sure my password is hacker-resistant. in the past yahoo used to give you a unique password when you were making a new account.

    mine was something like: stifr324mgs6690.

    i memorized it and i keep using it, without any incidents yet. the fact that i haven’t note it down anywhere, (it’s written just in my brain cells), makes it even stronger!

  3. flory says:

    i m sure my password is hacker-resistant. in the past yahoo used to give you a unique password when you were making a new account.

    mine was something like: stifr324mgs6690.

    i memorized it and i keep using it, without any incidents yet. the fact that i haven’t note it down anywhere, (it’s written just in my brain cells), makes it even stronger!

  4. flory says:

    i m sure my password is hacker-resistant. in the past yahoo used to give you a unique password when you were making a new account.

    mine was something like: stifr324mgs6690.

    i memorized it and i keep using it, without any incidents yet. the fact that i haven’t note it down anywhere, (it’s written just in my brain cells), makes it even stronger!

  5. […] The Internet password, as far as I can remember was something simple that I started out in 1996. And as we go more tech savvier, our passwords too evolved with us…more light on this in BloggingBistro.com’s post on how to create hacker-proof passwords. […]

  6. […] The Internet password, as far as I can remember was something simple that I started out in 1996. And as we go more tech savvier, our passwords too evolved with us…more light on this in BloggingBistro.com’s post on how to create hacker-proof passwords. […]

  7. […] Creating a strong password is also essential. For tips about how to do this, read my blog post, “How to create a hacker-resistant password.” […]

  8. […] Creating a strong password is also essential. For tips about how to do this, read my blog post, “How to create a hacker-resistant password.” […]

  9. […] on October 23, 2009 on Blogging Bistro. Reposted by kind […]

  10. […] on October 23, 2009 on Blogging Bistro. Reposted by kind […]

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