"Never ever use these Passwords for anything ever, (and some tips as to what you should do)"
Many of you find the whole password thing a right pain but you should be checking out the publishedlist of most common passwords for 2016.
It’s a constantly recurring issue that people are all far too predictable when it comes to choosing a password. But the thing is, a bit like democracy, password security may not be perfect but it is the best system we have.
Top Tip’s
I have heard a few good tips though, a phrase of 3 (ideally unrelated) words or more is always better because it is easier to remember e.g.PurpleGibbonPants.If you add in a Number that's better, then a special character even better.As long as you’re protective of your passphrase you can be a little bit cleverer each time you change your password. By moving the special character along each time. So what starts asP!urpleG1ibbonPantsbecomesPu!rpleGi1bbonPants.That way the number of passwords you need to try is reduced, do the same with capital letters and the password becomes more obscure but still (relatively easy to remember) replace a letter with a number and you get something even betterpur!Plegib1bb0npaNtsbut unrecognisable to anyone who sees it.
Use prompts
Another tip I've heard is to use a different password for each site, if you take the same approach of using phrases, you can use a phase that links to the site in some obscure way. The most obvious is to use the first letter of the site name, so for Twitter your passphrase might beTrumpTerrapinTownbut for Facebook you haveFoxFerretFlat.This way you can get similar passwords based around a structure that only you know with prompts to remind you which one you use for which site.
Stick with what you know
The final tip that I want to share right now is one that I quite like. If you have a book or a song that you really like. Take a phrase from thatWendyletmeinthen next month move on to the next line.Iwannabeyourfriend
.Only you would know where in the song you are and you can hum yourself a merry tune whilst you're remembering your password. Though if you're a big fan of a very specific group it may be easy for your co-workers to guess that your password is
ComeOnBarbieLetsGetStartedYou can do similar with the book you're reading, choose a line say line 15, and take the first 3 words from a given page (you can link it to the month so for January use page one, February page 2 etc). E.g.AGentlemanInPublic
Go on, make time to review your passwords in 2017!
