Hey Steemians, I'm glad to be finally here on the bandwagon! This is my first post so I'm not sure where to start but as I went through the password process, and read several posts on Steemit about passwords, I guess I will start with this topic!
If you have followed the recent news, it was revealed that even big corporations are not immune to hacks where their infrastructures were being used to mine Bitcoin. You would have thought that these companies should have really strong passwords in place to defend against such attacks! Well, it could have been an insider's job, but at an individual level, your own security is your own responsibility because you should not be sharing your password with anyone.
So what's the secret of a strong password?
As you may have already known, the longer your password, the harder it is for someone to brute-force it. https://howsecureismypassword.net/ is a really interesting website where it will let you know how strong a password is. You don't even have to type in your own password if you're afraid that the information will reach someone else over the internet. You can just try out random passwords and see the result. Words like superman, 123456, qwerty and even pussy are ridiculously easy to crack!
Now try HowMuchIsThatDoggieInTheWindow1000Dollars. It will take a ridiculous amount of years to crack that!
So you see, it's pretty easy. Forget about password (see my nick). Use a passphrase instead. Some say that you should not use a password that you can remember and it should look like a mess of mustard sauce with chopped broccoli and tofu (no, I have not tried that). I don't know, but I have only used one passphrase in my life and my passphrase has not been cracked, yet. This was my passphrase:
iwanttologinto(name)butiforgotmypasswordsince2002
There, my passphrase. I shouldn't have shared it. Fuck I loved that passphrase. Now you might say, hey that's cheating that's not ONE password. Well to me it is, and I have a different passphrase depending on the website or service I use, but it's still the same phrase for me. You can use whatever number you like at the end, just make sure it's easy for you to recall.
Now how can you come up with a passphrase and still be able to remember it for a long time? Here are some of the ways you can do that in my opinion:
- A secret about yourself that nobody else knows except you. It could be a dark secret, it could be a crime that you did. Anything, as long as nobody knows about it. For example:
In2049IwasbornandIkilledsomeonewhoisnotaReplicant
- Part of a lyric in your favourite song. (nope not my favourite):
Iwouldlovetomakeyouwetinbetweenyourthighs101times
- A poster on your room. (repeat it if it's too short):
neveRgivEuPgreaTthingStakEtimEneveRgivEuPgreaTthingStakEtimE
- Description of book(s) in your collection:
HarryPotterAndTheReturnOfTheKingChapter10byGeorgeRRMartin
By now, you'd be thinking damn that is such a long passphrase. Well if it protects your accounts I don't see why not, plus you're going to get used to it after a couple of times.
And as for why I changed my password, well what do you think?
