It started as a trickle, but soon started to flood and now I find myself neck deep in it. I am referring to the deluge of passwords that I am supposed to store in my brain and nowhere else. Internet Banking, Personal email, Home Computer, ATM Pins….list goes on.
The software programmers are not helping me either. When I started out using email, the passwords can be chosen to simpler. But nowadays, the Geeks who are the guardians of the web page security have made Password creation an exercise by itself.
So, When you create a new password it shows the strength of your password as you type each character. So According to the Geeks,the rules of a strong password are as following:
Rule 1: No two characters of your Name or your family member’s name is allowed. They track the lineage of your family till your Great grandfather.
Rule 2:Password should be vague so that nobody can login to your account. Even yourself
Rule 3:Passwords should be changed every month. Actually I change it every-time I login because I don’t remember the previous one
Rule 4: You should setup the security questions to prove your authenticity. Some of the questions are
“Which mobile phone did you first buy ?”
“Which was your first bank account?”
To me these questions are equally vague and I am better off remembering the password rather than answering these questions
Rule 5: Password setup should make the sign-up process look tedious. In the process of signing-up, I often end up feeling so victorious after the sign-up that I forget why I wanted to sign-up in first place. And then when I remember why I wanted to sign-up, I forget the password.
To live in the cyberspace it is now an imperative that I need to remember the password deluge. So I did a research and found some techniques to create passwords that can be recollected.
Technique 1 : Coin a phrase and create a password out of the prominent letters :
For Ex., Jack and Jill Went Up the Hill -J&jwutH
My age will be 30 yrs in year 2011 - Mawb30yi2011
Technique 2 : Create a list of websites that are important and Login to these websites as often as you can. By this way , your muscle memory comes to play and this is much more reliable than your conscious memory !!!
Technique 3: If your memory goes blank about a password, Don’t try too hard. Try only a maximum of 2 times and leave it. Do an entirely unrelated task like washing the kitchen utensils. Give it a try after atleast 2 hrs and I am sure that you would be able to hit the right password atleast 80% of the cases. If lady luck does not favor you, Read the techniques 1 & 2 and implement. If you think the above Techniques are a crap , Try calling the Almighty.
Good luck…..Long Live the Tyranny of Passwords
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