Passwords, a different kind of self protection

[Uninformed Opinion]

I've decide to talk about a different sort of self defense and protection for a bit. Most of you here on the GRRN are here because you take protection of yourself and your love ones very serious. Yet many people over look one of the most prevalent dangers we deal with today. Online security. I am just going to talk about one thing here. Passwords. Most computer users use weak passwords. Simple things like birthdays, a pets name, something of that sort. Even more people use only a couple of passwords that they cycle through for all there online and computer needs. Let's face it, everything today needs a password and who can remember them all? I'm going to lay out a simple way to make a strong password that is easy to remember. I call it the lyric cypher.

Most people listen to music, and have a few song they love and know by heart. For my example, I'm going to use the Rollings Stones “Sympathy for the Devil”, because I just love that song. Now what you do is take a line from that song. For this, we will use the first one.

“Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste”

Now, take the first letter of each word so you get, except words that are number equivalents, such as “to” = “2”, and you get :

Pam2imiamowat

A bit long for a password, but that is ok. You can use a shorter version if you want, taking just the first half of the line.

No, what you do is translate it into leet speak, replacing numbers for letters that look smiler. Such as “A”= “4” and “o” = “0” and what you end up with is

P4m2imi4m0w4t

For extra password strength, I'll now take the  “i”'s and turn them upside down, leaving us with:

P4m2!m!4m0w4t

That is a VERY strong password, and all you have to remember is the song you know by heart. The best thing about this is it can be used with anything. You have a movie quote you like, a poem, a bible verse, whatever. It can be used to generate a seemingly random password, that is long, hard to break, and most importantly, easy to remember. And most sights like hotmail and online banking sights let you type in a clue phrase for the password if you forget it. Just put in the band or song name.

Now, you can use any type of number letter conversion you want. You can even set up a rotating chart to keep by your computer if you want, but “leet” is easy to remember. If the code you end up with has nothing to be converted to a symbol such as an exclamation point, slap on on the end or at the beginning.

I know this isn't really a gun issue, but it is a self protection, and keeping people from “walking” into your computer and email is just as important as keeping them from walking into your house. I hope this helps any of you that have problems coming up with passwords, and those of you in the military and law enforcement know what a pain in the but it is coming up with a new password every 90 days or so.

[Rvick82]

Great post and good advice on how to make strong passwords easy to remember. I will definitely be putting this into action. Thanks!

Ryan

[Devereaux]

Very neat! AND it certainly does look like it can't be broken, even if we know better. Anyone interested in breaking MY passwords created this way would be very disappointed in what he got.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

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There's a password storage tool that is receiving high marks from Leo Laporte (the Tech Guy) and Steve Gibson (Gibson Research): LastPass.  http://lastpass.com/  It creates strong passwords and stores them automatically.  The Security Now! podcast on iTunes contains a pretty good review of the software.  Best of all: it's free!  Nothing for the basic version and a buck a month for the professional version.   

The two commentators are very well respected in the geek community, and the software is said to be very easy to use, portable, and absolutely secure.  I'm about to do it. 

BTW, the guys say if you use lower case, upper case, numbers, and special characters, a 10 digit password is almost unbreakable. LastPass allows you to use separate passwords for each account, and have them made of completely random characters.   

Dang, those geeks even have a YouTube video on LastPass: 
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/r9Q_anb7pwg&rel=0" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/r9Q_anb7pwg&rel=0</a>
LastPass portion starts at 52:45

[Edit:]  Just spent the last two hours pissin' off the wife and playing with LastPass.  Pretty kewl!

And no, I have no interest at all in LastPass.  Just a fanboy.   

[Uninformed Opinion]

Great post and good advice on how to make strong passwords easy to remember. I will definitely be putting this into action. Thanks!

Ryan

Glad you found this useful. Hope it helps keep you safe(er) online.

[Uninformed Opinion]

Very neat! AND it certainly does look like it can't be broken, even if we know better. Anyone interested in breaking MY passwords created this way would be very disappointed in what he got.

Well, if just like any other crime. If someone is determined enough there really isn't much you can do to stop them. All you can do is make yourself a harder target.

[Uninformed Opinion]

.
There's a password storage tool that is receiving high marks from Leo Laporte (the Tech Guy) and Steve Gibson (Gibson Research): LastPass.  http://lastpass.com/  It creates strong passwords and stores them automatically.  The Security Now! podcast on iTunes contains a pretty good review of the software.  Best of all: it's free!  Nothing for the basic version and a buck a month for the professional version.   

The two commentators are very well respected in the geek community, and the software is said to be very easy to use, portable, and absolutely secure.  I'm about to do it. 

BTW, the guys say if you use lower case, upper case, numbers, and special characters, a 10 digit password is almost unbreakable. LastPass allows you to use separate passwords for each account, and have them made of completely random characters.   

Dang, those geeks even have a YouTube video on LastPass: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Q_anb7pwg
LastPass portion starts at 52:45

[Edit:]  Just spent the last two hours pissin' off the wife and playing with LastPass.  Pretty kewl!

And no, I have no interest at all in LastPass.  Just a fanboy.   

Cool program. Might have to check that out. But for people that have to use work computers, or for those on secured or classified networks, a program like that may not be an option. So, a good system for coming up with a good password that is easy can still be a challenge.

[Charlie Foxtrot]

.
There's a password storage tool that is receiving high marks from Leo Laporte (the Tech Guy) and Steve Gibson (Gibson Research): LastPass.  http://lastpass.com/  It creates strong passwords and stores them automatically.  The Security Now! podcast on iTunes contains a pretty good review of the software.  Best of all: it's free!  Nothing for the basic version and a buck a month for the professional version.   

The two commentators are very well respected in the geek community, and the software is said to be very easy to use, portable, and absolutely secure.  I'm about to do it. 

BTW, the guys say if you use lower case, upper case, numbers, and special characters, a 10 digit password is almost unbreakable. LastPass allows you to use separate passwords for each account, and have them made of completely random characters.   

Dang, those geeks even have a YouTube video on LastPass: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Q_anb7pwg
LastPass portion starts at 52:45

[Edit:]  Just spent the last two hours pissin' off the wife and playing with LastPass.  Pretty kewl!

And no, I have no interest at all in LastPass.  Just a fanboy.   

Cool program. Might have to check that out. But for people that have to use work computers, or for those on secured or classified networks, a program like that may not be an option. So, a good system for coming up with a good password that is easy can still be a challenge.

Neat thing about LastPass: you can walk up to any PC, Mac, or Linux box, call up the LastPass website, put in your e-mail and master password, and you have instant access to all your passwords.  They are entered automatically, and supposedly securely.   I've successfully tried it on my work's computers, even though they are very tightly locked down. 

You're right, there are places where you can't use LastPass.  That password generation tool is pretty cool -- and fun!