Intellectual Property Law

Choosing Strong Passwords

By paul

Not quite a “law hack,” barely a “life hack,” maybe just a “memory hack.” But in response to this Lifehacker mention of an algorithm to create answers to “dumb” security questions, I decided to throw out my method of making memorable, strong passwords.

As time passes, password systems are requiring stronger passwords. Needs to be at least six characters wrong, mix up capital and lower case characters, has to have non-alphabetical characters, or even non-alphanumeric characters. Can’t have any words or names. And so on.

My method takes a line of a memorable song, using the naturally mnemonic nature of setting words to catchy music, and then uses the lyrics and the rhythm of the song to make the password sequence easier to remember.

What I do is choose a memorable phrase from one of my favorite songs. Let’s say I’m going to use the “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” phrase in the Ramone’s “Blitzkrieg Pop.” (Just for the record, I’m not detailing any of my actual passwords.)

First, just take the first letter of each word: h-h-l-g. In the song, they shout this out twice in a row: h-h-l-g-h-h-l-g. Now, maybe there’s some emphasis on the first “Hey!” and “Ho!” and let’s put the exclamation point at the end of each verse: H-H-l-g-!-H-H-L-G-!

And there we go, a pretty strong password: HHlg!HHLG! Try it. Tap it out to the rhythm of the song while you’re singing the lyrics in your head. It works. HHlg!HHLG!

That’s the basic system. But you can get fancier by throwing in a word or two and just flashing it up a bit more:

WBTC,WBTCORARoll! (”We built this city on rock and roll!”)

ComWWS1TBPWYRD! (”Carry on my way-ward son…”)

1ggHiHntoaYC$ (”It’s getting hot in here…”)

Full post as published by BC Law Intell. Prop. & Tech. Forum on November 18, 2007 (boomark / email).