A few months ago, I wrote about KeepPass Password Safe, and Ryan has written about LastPass, which are password managers that securely store your passwords and also offer password generation. If you’re using a password manager or other secure method to store your passwords, then a randomly-generated password (typically a difficult-to-memorize string of letters and numbers, possibly also including select punctuation) is your most secure password choice.
But for a variety of reasons, many users still prefer passwords that they can remember themselves and type in directly (rather than copying or inserting from a password manager). Perhaps you use a highly secure password for things like your bank, but you have a screen saver password you need to type in many times each day. There are still a number of ways to create a password you can remember well enough to type but that is still fairly secure. Lifehacker’s roundup of password horror stories and useful suggestions includes the simple, but effective, tips of moving your hands on the keyboard or using a sentence to create your password.
If you’ve got a less-important password that you’re typing in at least once a day, why not use it to create a little positive reinforcement for yourself? Consider creating a positive sentence that will be easy to remember, and type in the first letter of each word to create a password. For example:
I love my kitten Snowy who was born in February 2011 = IlmkSwwbiF2011
I complete projects easily and find satisfaction in my work = icpeafsimw
You can easily insert numbers or punctuation to your password to make it more secure or use it for different sites.
Taking a few extra seconds to say the sentence to yourself as you type in the letters gives you an opportunity to reinforce a positive thought. Most of us have plenty of negative, critical thoughts running through our minds so much of the time -- why not harness your passwords for good?
[Creative Commons licensed image by flickr user abcrumley]