For secure yet memorable passwords, try this: Your wife's maiden surname followed by the first telephone number you can remember - your home when growing up.
Or perhaps the license plate number of your first car, followed by the number and street name of your parent's home.
Or some other such combination.
If you always have two memorable things that only you know, then the chances of anyone guessing it is very remote.
And yes, I both use 1Password on my Mac (Mac OSX is Unix, very secure!) and have different memorable passwords for my important online accounts.
Posted by
Keith, Reading, UK on July 15, 2008:
Unfortunately, Chris's ideas are often the sort of thing that knowledgeable thieves will try. The best way I know of for creating a random looking but memorable password is to think up a sentence and use the initial letters. Even better if there are numbers and symbols. For example:
Manchester United beat Chelsea 2-0 on 1st November 2006.
this translates to:
MUbC2-0o1N06
You will remember it, but it is extremely unlikely that anyone could guess it.
BTW, this score and date are made up.
Posted by
Dave in NYC on January 27, 2009:
Two free options for password storage:
Keepass - Available for many platforms, including mobile devices
I think one has to use great care in such matters, especially when it comes to protecting personal information. I've never heard of Keepass; could be fantastic, but I'd have to do research before I would trust my very identity to them. I'm cool with Sourceforge, but you typo'd the URL and it actually went to a squatter site. Imagine if they had nefarious intent! So the bottom line is, great caution is required for all software, and especially security software. Do your homework. -rc
Posted by
Bryan - Northern Greece on January 31, 2009:
Connected to this, I use a system for remembering PIN numbers for cash cards/credit cards, which means I can even put a reminder on the card itself. I simply refer to a year when I saw someone come down in front of me on a parachute when I was a kid (and they broke their leg in doing so!) and another significant year in my life and then I draw a small picture of a parachute and a one letter reference to the other significant year and write + or - and the difference in years between those dates and the corresponding two-digit pair of the PIN. For example, if the parachute incident happened in 1932 (which it didn't, of course!!) and my child was born in 1922 (again, he wasn't) and my PIN number were 2751 I'd scratch or write on the card a representation of a parachute followed by -5bh+29 (bh = birth) - (19)32-5 = 27 and (19)22+29 = 51, put them together and you have the PIN, 2751. Totally comprehensible to me, but to no one else, and easily remembered however rarely I use the card. As all PIN numbers here are four-digits, it works a treat. The same can be done for computer-based passwords, simply by having in mind set alternatives for certain letters (e.g. a = @) and using place names or long words of significance to oneself.
Posted by
Various Readers on February 6, 2009:
This is a composite suggestion from several readers:
You suggested Roboform. I have not used Roboform before, but wanted to add that there are many tools out there and a good number of them are free. I, for instance, have used [Another Product] for several years now and am very pleased with it. Give it a try when you have a chance. I'd be interested to know how you feel it stacks up to Roboform.
---
I won't have a chance, because I don't have time to research whether I trust the company that's producing the software, and that's critical. What, I "don't have time" to ensure I have great security? No: I've already done that. I have my solution, which I recommended. So I certainly can't go out and research them all. But yes, there certainly are other solutions out there, with their own advantages and, perhaps, disadvantages. -rc
Identity Theft: Protect Yourself - Comments
Posted by Chris, South Africa on July 15, 2008:
For secure yet memorable passwords, try this: Your wife's maiden surname followed by the first telephone number you can remember - your home when growing up.
Or perhaps the license plate number of your first car, followed by the number and street name of your parent's home.
Or some other such combination.
If you always have two memorable things that only you know, then the chances of anyone guessing it is very remote.
And yes, I both use 1Password on my Mac (Mac OSX is Unix, very secure!) and have different memorable passwords for my important online accounts.
Posted by Keith, Reading, UK on July 15, 2008:
Unfortunately, Chris's ideas are often the sort of thing that knowledgeable thieves will try. The best way I know of for creating a random looking but memorable password is to think up a sentence and use the initial letters. Even better if there are numbers and symbols. For example:
Manchester United beat Chelsea 2-0 on 1st November 2006.
this translates to:
MUbC2-0o1N06
You will remember it, but it is extremely unlikely that anyone could guess it.
BTW, this score and date are made up.
Posted by Dave in NYC on January 27, 2009:
Two free options for password storage:
Keepass - Available for many platforms, including mobile devices
Sourceforge's Password safe.
---
I think one has to use great care in such matters, especially when it comes to protecting personal information. I've never heard of Keepass; could be fantastic, but I'd have to do research before I would trust my very identity to them. I'm cool with Sourceforge, but you typo'd the URL and it actually went to a squatter site. Imagine if they had nefarious intent! So the bottom line is, great caution is required for all software, and especially security software. Do your homework. -rc
Posted by Bryan - Northern Greece on January 31, 2009:
Connected to this, I use a system for remembering PIN numbers for cash cards/credit cards, which means I can even put a reminder on the card itself. I simply refer to a year when I saw someone come down in front of me on a parachute when I was a kid (and they broke their leg in doing so!) and another significant year in my life and then I draw a small picture of a parachute and a one letter reference to the other significant year and write + or - and the difference in years between those dates and the corresponding two-digit pair of the PIN. For example, if the parachute incident happened in 1932 (which it didn't, of course!!) and my child was born in 1922 (again, he wasn't) and my PIN number were 2751 I'd scratch or write on the card a representation of a parachute followed by -5bh+29 (bh = birth) - (19)32-5 = 27 and (19)22+29 = 51, put them together and you have the PIN, 2751. Totally comprehensible to me, but to no one else, and easily remembered however rarely I use the card. As all PIN numbers here are four-digits, it works a treat. The same can be done for computer-based passwords, simply by having in mind set alternatives for certain letters (e.g. a = @) and using place names or long words of significance to oneself.
Posted by Various Readers on February 6, 2009:
This is a composite suggestion from several readers:
---
I won't have a chance, because I don't have time to research whether I trust the company that's producing the software, and that's critical. What, I "don't have time" to ensure I have great security? No: I've already done that. I have my solution, which I recommended. So I certainly can't go out and research them all. But yes, there certainly are other solutions out there, with their own advantages and, perhaps, disadvantages. -rc
Read the article that everyone's commenting on, or post a comment about it.