Here's one of my very best tips, never before
published anywhere.
Many people use the same password for all their online
accounts. That's convenient, but it's insecure. If you
always use the same password then if someone gets the
password to any of your accounts, they then have access
to all your accounts. It's safer to have a
unique password at every site you have an account with,
but then you'd have to keep a big list of passwords
somewhere and look up your password every time you need
to log on somewhere. That's pretty inconvenient.
So here's my solution: Use passwords based on
the name of the website you're logging in to. Now you've
got a unique password for every site you log
into, and you'll know it without having to look it up.
Here's an example recipe:
- Take the first three letters of the domain name,
backwards, and capitalized
- Take the last three letters of the domain name,
backwards
- Type number of characters in the name, multiplied by
9
So for example:
- Home Depot > MOH + top + 3x9 = MOHtop27
- Flickr > ILF + rkc + 2x9 = ILFrkc18
- Facebook >
CAF + koo + 2x9 = CAFkoo18
- Wikipedia
> KIW + aid + 5x9 = KIWaid45
You can make your formula easier or more complex than the
example above. The possibilities for methods and
variations are endless. But whatever you choose,
you've got a unique password for every website you log
onto, and it's a password you know without having to look
it up. It's both safe and extremely
convenient. Neat!