There are a number of ways to secure access to online services, but the humble password remains both the strongest – and weakest – link in the chain, whether you’re using a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop PC. Weak passwords can be cracked in a variety of ways, from “brute force” dictionary attacks to simple guess work.
It’s incredible to think that many people still use their own names as passwords or easy-to-guess sequences such as “abc123” or “qwerty”. Others use single words like “monkey” or “birthday” that are easy to crack using password-cracking software.
A strong password uses a combination of numbers and letters in a sequence that is difficult for people and computers to guess. The very strongest passwords are seemingly random strings of characters.
If you find it difficult to come up with passwords, there are free tools that can do it for you. Whether it’s a web-based service that enables you to specify a wide variety of parameters. For example, you can choose how long to make the password, whether it should contain special characters, numbers and different letter cases. Perhaps it can also be used to encrypt passwords to make them even stronger.
Passwords for Kids
However, tools with such a variety of options could prove daunting, so we also recommend looking at dinopass.com. It’s meant for children, but the passwords it very quickly generates are suitable for anyone to use. There are only two options - simple or strong. In both cases, pairs of random words are coupled with numbers. The “strong” option substitutes some of the letters for numbers.
DinoPass is successful because it enables you to create passwords that are memorable - and it does it in a simple way. Pairs of words are harder to crack than single words - especially when they’re apparently unrelated.
Devise your own Password
Take two words that have some significance for you and turn that into a passphrase. For example, if you’re a DJ who drives a red car the password could be “redjockeyl”. Add a memorable number to make it stronger. For example a family member’s birth year, and it could become; “redjockey64”. Finally, substitute one or two letters for numbers or other characters to get something like “r3dj0ckey64”.
To anyone else, that will look pretty random - but to you, it’s a password that’s easy to remember and impossible to guess.
Free Password Generator
Another problem is that we have lots of passwords to remember. At least, we should have. Using the same password for every service is never a good idea. If a hacker or thief has access to that one password, they could have access to your entire online life.
You can also use online password management tools, like Norton Identity Safe, which is free to download and you can use on your laptop or your mobile phone. Norton Identity Safe remembers all your passwords for you, and is totally secure. You can use the site’s free password generator to create very strong, complex passwords without having to worry about remembering a single number or letter. Or if you prefer, you can also use the app in combination with your own passwords.
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