Do Your Password Right

Don't use your birthday. Don't use something about your kids. Whatever you do, don't use 12345 (or asdfjkl;) becasue the folks on the dark side know all those passwords.

Don't use a word I can find in a dictionary. The folks on the dark side will encrypt a dictionary and do a bit compare to your encripted password, offset into the dictionary and read the word. (and they will do it with dictionaries in other languages too).

You've heard the stuff. Use lots of characters. Use some upper case, some lower case. Put numbers and symbols in it. That's how to do a good password...BUT WAIT!

Those "good" passwords are hard to remember, right?

Nope. If it's hard to remember you did it wrong. Do it like this:

amac=bIw2bm

There's a "good" password. It has capital letters, lower case letters, symbols, numbers. The whole shooting match. Hard to remember? Nope. Not if you think of it like this:

all men are created equal but I want to be more

It's the same password. Sure, I used an equal sign rather than the word and the number 2 rather than the word "to" but I can remember the sentence. So use the first letter of every word but substitute the symbols for the words.

You can get all kinds of good passwords this way. Use jokes:

Jbyapdmtao2gu (Just becasue you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you)
edhhdbadwabthawe (Every dog has his day but a dog with a broken tail has a weak end)

Use a phrase:

tmbibfiwi@ (thin may be in but fat is where it's at)
#yf&/ywbdtwa` (pound your fist and slash your wrist but don't talk with an accent)

Or alter words you can remember easily:

S1dne? (Sidney)
- Ok, using a question mark for the word "why" is a stretch but you'll remember
Nebr@sk@ (I shouldn't have to tell you this one)

Anyway. Use symbols as words (=, #, &, and the ever popular ^ (that last one is a carrot). Use sentences for the letters. Capatalize where it makes sense and you will end up with a password you can remember and the people on the dark side can't figure out!!