01-22-2016, 04:29 AM
(Edited 01-22-2016, 04:35 AM by meridannight.)
i wanted to post this on that other thread as a reply to Anocxu, but i decided to create a whole independent thread for it, because a lot of you might benefit from this:
the problem is, people are using real words for their passwords. there is a way around that, by creating your own personal password primer. i'm gonna give you some tips that can be helpful, and that i use (among some other things) myself:
--start substituting certain letters for some others.
for example, always substitute letter w for L (capitalized or not). so, instead of typing 'Wellington.was.at.Waterloo' your password is 'Lellington.Las.at.Laterloo'. much more difficult to crack.
--always capitalize certain letters (but not others). capital letters make passwords harder to crack (they are essentially a self-standing character in the alphabet for the hackers, which doubles the alphabet for them. huge advantage for you!).
for example start capitalizing m, t, r, and q. so instead of 'tourniquet.tranquil.amaranth' your password reads now 'TouRniQueT.TRanQuil.aMaRanTh'. there is no way for the hackers to know exactly which and how many letters you are capitalizing. they exist now in mid-word instead of in the beginning of it, and the ease of cracking your password just went up exponentially. in essence, the above password would be impossible to crack.
--always omit certain other letters.
for example, never type out i and f. so instead of 'further.inland.field', your password reads 'urther.nland.eld'
add the capitalization: 'uRTheR.nland.eld'.
add the substitution from the first suggestion, e.g. substitute 'l' for 'y' and you get: 'uRTheR.nyand.eyd'.
--use certain characters other than letters.
for example: # and " . people tend to use numbers (years, and birthdates, mostly) and maybe punctuation or hyphenation marks in their passwords. these are easily predictable and thus easily hackable. use characters normally not in use in common every day text. choose some certain characters and stick with them.
the punctuation i used in password examples above is just to separate out the words, not to be used in the password like that.
these simple rules will be easy for you to remember. and only you know what they are. it might take getting used to in the beginning, but once you've familiarized yourself with your own primer, making such modifications to your password comes naturally. you don't need to create a randomized wall of text generated by a computer app that has no meaning and that you need another medium to even store it.
these above guidelines are just a few things that will help you create your own completely unique password. you can follow such rules for every password and keep them constant across passwords (i.e. do not omit different letters for different passwords, this will only be more difficult to remember. always keep them one and the same, no matter what the password is).
this turns your password essentially into gibberish, it's no longer easy dictionary words, and consequently impossible to hack if it is of sufficient length. already at 10 characters this will create a very strong password.
Anocxu Wrote:So hacking passwords is really just a game of Jeopardy.
Most websites are 8 maybe 10 characters max..
I guess it's time to change that.
the problem is, people are using real words for their passwords. there is a way around that, by creating your own personal password primer. i'm gonna give you some tips that can be helpful, and that i use (among some other things) myself:
--start substituting certain letters for some others.
for example, always substitute letter w for L (capitalized or not). so, instead of typing 'Wellington.was.at.Waterloo' your password is 'Lellington.Las.at.Laterloo'. much more difficult to crack.
--always capitalize certain letters (but not others). capital letters make passwords harder to crack (they are essentially a self-standing character in the alphabet for the hackers, which doubles the alphabet for them. huge advantage for you!).
for example start capitalizing m, t, r, and q. so instead of 'tourniquet.tranquil.amaranth' your password reads now 'TouRniQueT.TRanQuil.aMaRanTh'. there is no way for the hackers to know exactly which and how many letters you are capitalizing. they exist now in mid-word instead of in the beginning of it, and the ease of cracking your password just went up exponentially. in essence, the above password would be impossible to crack.
--always omit certain other letters.
for example, never type out i and f. so instead of 'further.inland.field', your password reads 'urther.nland.eld'
add the capitalization: 'uRTheR.nland.eld'.
add the substitution from the first suggestion, e.g. substitute 'l' for 'y' and you get: 'uRTheR.nyand.eyd'.
--use certain characters other than letters.
for example: # and " . people tend to use numbers (years, and birthdates, mostly) and maybe punctuation or hyphenation marks in their passwords. these are easily predictable and thus easily hackable. use characters normally not in use in common every day text. choose some certain characters and stick with them.
the punctuation i used in password examples above is just to separate out the words, not to be used in the password like that.
these simple rules will be easy for you to remember. and only you know what they are. it might take getting used to in the beginning, but once you've familiarized yourself with your own primer, making such modifications to your password comes naturally. you don't need to create a randomized wall of text generated by a computer app that has no meaning and that you need another medium to even store it.
these above guidelines are just a few things that will help you create your own completely unique password. you can follow such rules for every password and keep them constant across passwords (i.e. do not omit different letters for different passwords, this will only be more difficult to remember. always keep them one and the same, no matter what the password is).
this turns your password essentially into gibberish, it's no longer easy dictionary words, and consequently impossible to hack if it is of sufficient length. already at 10 characters this will create a very strong password.
''Do I look civilized to you?''