How to Create Secure Online Passwords You Can Remember

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Despite the fact that in 2018 you would expect the password to be no more and all methods of authentication use some other method for authentication, we are still using passwords.  The same method for authentication for 58 years!

When Did The First Computer Passwords Get Created?

According to a Google Query on when the first password were and how it started, the modern computer password was introduced to computer science and the wider world in 1960 by Fernando Corbató. We look at its history and impact. The modern computer password was introduced to computer science and the wider world in 1960 by Fernando Corbató.

This means 58 years now the same method has been the primary method for authentication even though technology itself has advanced so many ways forward.  The problem is advanced computer hardware, software and even AI make passwords less secure of an authentication mechanism than ever due to the fact that most people are not good at creating or remembering securely constructed passwords.  The fall back is to create a password that is easily remembered and too often people refer to memory, events, familiar names, dates and other pieces of details to construct their passwords.

This is why passwords are often a construct consisting of a pet name, family member name, and maybe some birthday, address numbers, part of a phone number or even scarier part of a social security number.  This means dictionary attacks combined with brute force attacks and generally passwords can be broken in less and less time.  But the password isn’t going away anytime soon, biometrics are not much more secure if they fall into the wrong hands, facial recognitions can still be thwarted and multi-modal (using 2 or more factors at the same time) are not main stream enough or widely supported by enough devices.  Plus you get into the PII (personally identifiable information) data exposure risks of having to collect biometrics and other information.

So all you can do is ensure that the passwords you are using for your Social Media applications or Banking Applications are secure.  This infographic provides a good overview of passwords in general, what to stay away from and how to make sure your passwords are created so they are less likely to be compromised.  The other thing is to make sure you use a different password for each site, so if one company’s data is compromised your password isn’t compromised exposing risk to many sites that all used the same password.

If you have trouble remembering passwords, you can leverage a password manager like LastPass, but be careful because when you store all your passwords in one location, this creates a single risk that could expose everything, though services like LastPass so ensuring your LastPass password is unique and extremely strong is also very important and should never be the same password used on another site.

Consider changing passwords every few months as well, because usually when there is a breach or stolen data it is for a previous date range, and if your passwords are no longer valid you are at less of a risk.

This password infographic comes to us courtesy of https://www.mikesgearreviews.com

 

We are influencers and brand affiliates.  This post contains affiliate links, most which go to Amazon and are Geo-Affiliate links to nearest Amazon store.