Strong Passwords?

One of our users asked me about creating a strong password that they could remember and said that they would often either end up writing it down or leaving a clue for themselves. The problem with leaving the clue such as the password hint feature was that they had to make it so simple anyone with a little knowledge of them could guess it.

I am sure you have seen this type of hint. During a demonstration I came across one with a windows password hint of first pet. A quick search on social media led to daffy2003 and we were in to the PC. A few minutes later we were in to various web sites and email accounts without using any password crackers, simply by knowing the year and name that the user got their first dog (We actually worked it out from memories posted on Facebook - Two years since I lost my beloved dog daffy who died shortly after reaching the grand old age of 14).

The user now uses my system and has a number of very strong passwords each one different and all with a hint that prompts him, and only him to work out what it is.

I will try and explain it to you and hopefully it may be of use. The first stage is to associate a memory with what you are doing.

So when I joined up to a shoe shop online I need to create a strong password - yes it needs to be strong because I have my card details stored there along with my delivery address, so the link I am looking for is shoes! What songs do I know about shoes?

The only song that springs to mind about shoes is a song originally sung by Nancy Sinatra in 1966 - These boots are made for walking. Now you may not know the song but I bet you can sing a line.

The line I always sing (in my head or when alone in the shower) is These boots are made for walking and that's just what I am going to do.

Instant password tbrm4w or atjw1ag2d. See what I have done? This gives a fairly strong password but most require symbols or capitals.

Now I always do my shoe shopping just after lunch so about two pm. So when I type my new password how about holding down the shift key for the first two characters?

TBrm4w or the last two? tbrm$W.

So how do I leave myself a hint (I don't buy that many pairs of shoes!) Well I already know that it is a song related to shoes - I only know one song but just in case I didn't how about a clue of NS66? For me that wouldn't work because for some reason unbeknown to me, I have it fixed in my head that that was a Cilla Black song, but then I always think was it Helen Shapiro? so my hint would be Helen Black or perhaps Cilla Shapiro. I do not think anyone could work out a password of TBrm4w from either of those.

The one thing we can all remember is a song. Try it and see how you go.