![]() ![]() You can also have a notes field for exceptions, for example a website which doesn’t allow your special character or has other odd password requirements. If you want to use something simpler like a spreadsheet, don’t save the actual password, but instead simply store the name of the website, app or service, along with a name for the password algorithm, which should have nothing to do with the algorithm itself. If you want to store these password for reference, use a password manager which fully encrypts all your passwords using a highly secure master password. For the most common websites you use, you will begin to memorize those specific passwords over time without having to derive them. Algorithms may seem overwhelming at first, but once you come up with a solid one and start to use it, passwords become easier and easier to derive or recall. With a good password algorithm, you can consistently generate long passwords, with special characters, that are unique for every website and service, and are difficult to guess yet easy to derive. It’s just an example to help you come up with your own, yet I hope you can see the usefulness of the result. Please don’t actually use this specific algorithm. Using the same algorithm, let’s create a password for : With this hypothetical algorithm a login would be derived like so: Count the number of letters in the TLD (e.g.Count the number of letters in the domain name of the website and add it.Add the letters B1a3k (Black with two letters transposed to numbers).D would become C, K would become J, A would become Z, etc.) Move one letter backwards for the first two letters (e.g.Take the first three letters in a website’s domain name. ![]() For example, here’s a simple one based on website domain names: ![]() ![]() The algorithm doesn’t have to be very complex. This lets people derive a password instead of having to memorize many complex passwords or use a password manager. Creating a Password SystemĪ password algorithm is simply a set of steps a person can easily run in his or her head to create a unique password for a website or mobile app. The solution, often discouraged by security experts, is creating a password algorithm. But there is another way to have unique passwords for every website passwords that can easily be remembered, yet are difficult to guess. For the average person, using a password manager to generate unique passwords for every website and app may seem a bit cumbersome or complicated. Password reuse is one of the major ways online accounts become compromised. People should use a different password for every website or service. Using leaked usernames and passwords from one service to attempt to gain entry to other services is known as credential stuffing. I never use my old MySpace or Yahoo account,” but in the case of the Yahoo data breach, 59% of users also had an account compromised in the Sony breach of 2011, and were using the exact same password for both services 3! Now you may think to yourself, “I don’t care. In 2012, Yahoo Voice had a data breach of nearly half a million usernames and unencrypted passwords 2. It exposed passwords that were weakly hashed and forced lowercase, making them relatively easy to crack 1. Sometime in 2008, MySpace had a data breach of nearly 260 million accounts. ![]()
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