Tiffany 14 - Passwords
In response to my blog post #13, I saw Pranav's comment that said he didn't like forgetting his password for the 3rd time that day. Whether that statement was literal or not (if it was good luck), I decided to look up some ways to create passwords that are both secure and easy for us to remember.
Getting password ideas: Thinking of what to make your passwords can be a difficult topic at times. One suggestion is to create an acronym from a memorable sentence, an inside joke for example. You can also combine several random words together. You can get ideas from your favorite book or song, basing it on something that stands out to you. Finally, you can also have a base password that varies slightly for different platforms.
Securing your password: In order to make your password a lot more secure, it is important to use a combination of upper/lower case letters, numbers, and symbols so that it is a lot harder to guess. For example, replacing certain letters with numbers (e.g. replacing "o" with "0") is a trick that will make your password more unique and harder to guess. Creating a small mental key that replaces every instance of a certain character with another might help in remembering which characters you change.
Storing passwords: Remembering your passwords might be the hardest part. Of course, it would be optimal to remember it using your brain, but since some people are not capable of doing so, we need to be able to store our passwords in a place without having the risk of them being found and used against us. Never write your passwords down character for character: instead, disguise them by either writing down a hint that would remind you of what it is, something that rhymes with your password, or an acronym for your password. This way, you would be the only one able to remember the password after seeing this disguised version.
At this point, you all have passwords that you are already very familiar with and it is best not to change any if you have no trouble remembering them. However, if you do at the moment or need to create a new password in the future, keeping these tips in mind will help you greatly.
Sources:
https://smallbiztrends.com/2015/02/ways-to-remember-passwords.html
Hey Tiffany! Password storage and management become growing concerns as cyber security fails to catch up with advancements in technology. Personally, I have a bad habit of reusing passwords, and I should really stop if I want to maintain any security. My security should always come before my convenience, especially in an age where almost anything is possible through the use of technology. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteTiffany, usually I go order when reading blog posts but when I saw your blog post title, I knew I needed to read it. I am someone who has the same 3 passwords and anytime I need a password I just randomly choose the three. Epically living in this day and age having the same password can be dangerous because if someone finds out then you can potentially be hacked and your personal information may be leaking out. This really has allowed me to reflect on how powerful our memory power is and how much we enjoy routine. Routine and repetition is something we as humans really enjoy since we know what exactly will occur next. Another great aspect of this blog is that it was really helpful to brainstorm password ideas for the future. Thank you for writing this unique, thoughtful post.
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany! My metaphor was, unfortunately, not hypothetical and I really do forget my password awfully often. The way you outline for your password creation method seems like it would be a memorable password leading to it bypassing my issue, so maybe I will take it to heart and start using it. The storage idea however, is especially appealing, since I can usually think of some really good (read: stupid) ways to hide my passwords from prying eyes. I will make sure to take your blog to heart seeing that it was written thanks to me (I am so cool)
ReplyDeleteHey Tiffany, I used to have the most difficult time making passwords, so I used to always resort to using the same password for all my accounts. As I grew older and learned that using one password for everything isn’t a good idea, I had to go back to the annoying process of trying to think of a password with enough variation that my information can be kept safe but also easy enough for me to remember. What I discovered was making a shape or pattern on the keyboard or making up a super outrageous but memorable phrase as a password was actually also a very helpful and consistent method to come up with a reliable password. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHey Tiffany, the topic of passwords is one I am not proud to discuss. Over the course of my entire life, I have been using the same password, with mere variations. I have always told myself I need to break this habit, but its ease of accessibility and my simple laziness restrained myself from actually enforcing such change. I feel like my password has already been leaked on the dark web, but I have not seen my accounts get hacked so far. I will probably force myself to change this bad habit of mine in the near future, although realistically I feel like I will not until I see one of my accounts get hacked.
ReplyDeleteAll my passwords are in different languages, Latin predominantly, and with numerical variations to reach the “at least 1 number” and “at least 1 special character” criteria. I’ve wanted to change up a couple passwords but these have a system and I have a mental map of which combinations go with which type of website so these work for me now. I will say though, my phone and iPad password are vaguely embarrassing but I’m too afraid of forgetting and locking myself out of them to change them.
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany! Your blog post this week is still helpful to me because I am someone who forgets my passwords all the time. In addition to the stress of forgetting an important password, it also takes such a long time to authenticate yourself and be able to reset your password. Once, we were taking a test on AP Classroom and I completely forgot the password to it and was super stressed. I really appreciate you for covering this topic so I could be better at creating passwords that are both strong and easy to remember. I liked the trick you offered to use something that rhymes or an acronym. A trick I use is to store my password under my email so that it just auto-fills my password when I am signed in to my email. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany! This was a very helpful post, and I'm very thankful for it because I'm someone who basically uses the same password (or very slightly different variations of it) for every single website, which I know is not very safe. It is really important to create passwords that are both strong and easy to remember. I definitely need to start using different passwords, and some of your tips were actually very useful, so I'll keep them in mind for sure! Online keychain apps, where you remember one single master password to access all of your other passwords, are a very helpful resource as well.
ReplyDeleteHi Tiffany, I thought the techniques you provided in your blog will be very helpful for the future when I have to remember more of my passwords. For me, I only have two or three passwords that I mainly use which is a technique that I use, however, I realize that it can be dangerous if someone found one of my main passwords because they would have access to many of my accounts. For this reason, I will be adding more variations to my passwords. Thank you for sharing!
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