In this day and age, the risks of being hacked have very much become a mainstream issue. The media report story after story, of websites being shut down, Passwords being obtained and credit card details stolen. With the statistics of cyber crime increasing year by year, It’s a surprise that any of us still have the guts to use the internet at all.
As someone who has previously had the password for their email address stolen and changed, I have had the ‘pleasure’ of going through the arduous task of not only recovering and changing the password for my email address, but also having to change the password for every other account that used the same password (At the time, It was all of them!), Because of this situation, I am more than aware of how easy It can be for hackers to have complete control over your life, At Least, That’s what it felt like. This mysterious person somewhere on this vast, highly populated planet, had complete access to every online account that I had made over the past 10. That’s right, I had been using the same password for every account for 10 years. I almost deserved to be hacked! How could I have been so stupid? And after all this stress and trepidation, I couldn’t help but feel as if, I was one of the lucky ones.
The technique that I have been using to create my new and unique passwords for each new account that I make online, is as followed;
First I'll choose a memorable word that will be used on most of my passwords or as I call it a ‘base word’, For the sake of this post, let’s say my base word is ’Keyboard’.
Next, I’ll pair this memorable word with something to do with the site that I’m using.
For example, If I happen to be creating an account for steemit that word could be steem, steemit or any other word that relates to the site (Something I’d remember).
Then, I’d chose a number to use somewhere within my password, Let’s say 23. In most cases, it is compulsory to use numbers in you password, but even when not, This still provides an extra level of security.
Finally, I,ll throw in a few capital letters. Try not to put these in the same place for every password else an easily predictable pattern may arise.
So what you’ll find we have now Is;
A Base Word - keyboard
A Relating Word - steemit
A Number - 23
And some Capital letters for good measure
Now, Place all of your ingredients into an ovenproof dish and bake for 35 minutes at 150 degrees C or gas mark 2. Your new password is - keYboardsteemiT23
If you're still slightly paranoid about your password pattern being too predictable, rightly so, Then you could try breaking up each word and jumbling them back together. For example
keY, board, steem, iT, 23,
So, Once you have your broken words, Simply put them back together in a new order.
You would now have something that looks a bit like this;
Finally, If you're worried about forgetting any of your passwords, Try writing them down somewhere safe, NOT ON YOUR COMPUTER.
Now, I’m sure that most of you will find this stuff as quite a novice subject, But like my previous self, many people still use the same password for every account online. I hope that this article has helped to shed some light on the importance of creating unique and variating passwords for each of your online accounts.
I actually composed this post last week, But with the current attack on Steemit, this posts is now more relevant to us than ever. Stay safe and Change That Password!
Thank you for Reading,
endaksi1
Images created at https://imgflip.com/
http://ipub.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/password
