What's the best way to protect your password?

Question

This is for my sister, she just had her's hacked, so Im trying to help her out.

Answer 1

The best way to protect a password is by creating one that seems nonsensical to someone else other than you. Also to use capital letters, numbers, and or special characters in it. One way to make up one is to make up a sentence and use the acronym for that sentence as a password. Example: I hate 3 cheese pizza and diet coke. Acronym: Ih3cpadc This way you've just used a capital letters, lower case letters and numbers. That acronym is jibberish to someone other than you. You can also you a favorite quote or a favorite line from a song or book and turn that in to an acronym.

Answer 2

The best way to protect your password: Don't use one!

Without more insight into the circumstances behind her password being "hacked", it's impossible to say how it happened. Passwords are subject to a whole range of different exploits, of which hacking the password (assuming that is meant to mean extracting the password by some technical means) is probably least common.

So when I say don't use a password, what I'm really saying is that they are problematic at best and if there is some other means of authentication (like biometrics, etc.), use that. But ideally you would use TWO forms of authentication (e.g. thumbprint AND password). That capability will become much more common over the next couple years.

But FOR TODAY, since we are still stuck with passwords, here is a list of things to do to make the insecure... slightly more secure:

1) Protect Your Passwords - No One needs access to your password, not even the owners of the system you're logging into.

2) Do NOT Duplicate Passwords - You probably care less about someone logging into your Y! answers than your personal bank account. So you're not as likely to protect your Yahoo password as carefully as the password for your bank account. But if they're the same password... Many banks and large organizations have been hacked because managers and IT administrators used the same password for personal accounts as for critical work accounts. Many ID thefts occur the same way.

3) "Be Creative" with passwords like BCre8tiv! - Think of a theme for your passwords for example. Maybe nursery rhymes: "Jack and Jill went up the hill" = J&Jw^th! With a little thought you can create passwords that are very hard to break but still easy to remember.

4) Use Three Character Types - On your keyboard there are four easily usable character types; upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers, and special characters like the punctuation symbols. Make sure you use three of the four of them in your passwords.

Finally, keep in mind that hackers and identity thieves are opportunists. They follow the path of least resistance. If they don't get your password within the first few seconds of effort (literally), they will most likely move on because it's not worth their time. Why spend five minutes on your password when they can get 30 others in that same time frame? Your password does not have to be unbreakable (which is good since that's impossible), it just has to be good enough to make it not worth the effort.

Answer 3

Make a password which LOOKS random, and yet is actually anything but. Here are some tricks of the password trade:

Make up a sentence, then use the first letter of each word as your password. Let's say your sentence is "My dog has lots of fleas." Your password would be "mdhlof." It looks random, but is easily remembered.

Upper-case letters. Passwords are usually case-sensitive, so be sure to throw in some upper-case letters to make your password harder to steal. If you're using our sentence suggestion above, try capitalizing the first word, or a proper name.

Use numbers for letters. A number of letters are easily replaced by numbers without skipping a beat. The number 0 can replace the letter "o." The number 1 replaces the letters "I" or "L." 5 can be "s," 4 can be "h," 3 can be "e", and 7 can be "t. Or go crazy and find something that works for you! (Like using 7 for "v" in the movie "Se7en.")

Here's an example of a password using all three of these tips. Let's say your sentence is "My daughter Mariel is beautiful." Turn that into "mdM1b" where you're using an upper-case M for Mariel and the number 1 for the letter "i."

If a casual observer comes along, it's going to be difficult for him or her to just sit down at your computer and guess what the password is.

This technique can actually be more secure than a random series of letters and numbers, because you won't find yourself writing down the actual password! You can write down the sentence you used to create the password and keep that in a drawer. If someone comes along and sees "My dog has lots of fleas" they might feel sorry for you, but your password will be secure!

One important thing to remember is to try to come up with a password that on the surface doesn't have a lot to do with you, personally. Stay away from birthdays, places of birth, pet names, favorite hobbies, etc. I once worked with a guy who was a huge hockey fan. He thought he had brilliant, fail-safe passwords, but one day when he was out sick, it only took three tries to figure out "Mark Messier" and get into his system.

Answer 4

Make sure of the following:

- Never give out your password (This is the #1 reason for getting it hacked)
- Make sure its a combination of letters and Numbers and if the site/software allows also add special characters to the mix.
- Try to substitue the common numbers with letters like number can be written as Numb3r or Hello as He110 etc...
- Make sure its easy for you to remember but its not your Date of birth your pets name or your name etc which is easy to guess.
- Change it frequently or when-ever you think someone might have obtained it somehow.
- Never carry it around in your purse, or put it on the post it note on the computer or under the keyboard. These are the place people look first.
- Make a mix of Small and Capital letters.
- Memorize it...
- Example password could be: 1L0v3SunB@th

Answer 5

For creating a password:

Don't use common words, names, etc. These can be guessed using trial & error, brute force, dictionary attacks, etc.

Use combinations of letters and numbers, including uppercase letters (if the site allows case-sensitive passwords).

Substitute numbers for letters.

An example could be:
Instead of "google" try "G00gle". As you can see you have a capital "G", and zero's in the place of the letter "o".

This is probably your best bet. Combine one or two words, use upper and lower case, incorporate numbers into it.

You could also use a random password generator, however these may be more difficult to remember. Try:
http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php


Also if you are looking for a program to store password passwords, try the free tool KeePass; http://keepass.sourceforge.net/
Just use a strong password to protect the password database (using the technique mentioned above)

Answer 6

A password should be at least 8 characters in length, and have letters (upper and lower case) at least one number and at least one symbol. Passw0rd! is an example.

Depending on nature of the sytem that's being accessed the password should be changed anywhere seven to sixty days.

Answer 7

Another way is to use all of the available spaces.Yahoo messenger has 20 spaces for a password Use all of them Mix and match words and numbers.

Answer 8

best way to protect a password is choose not save them on the computer, have a good firewall, and for all passwords to be alhpanumeric, eg rather than happy12 have it hap12py since thats extreme hard to break.

Answer 9

best way iis to make a 26 key password up of letters and numbers and save it to cd back up

Answer 10

Something she can remember. She can use 3 letters 2 numbers, and three more letters. I usually use one capital letter in my password. Put letters in between your words.