We all know that it's dangerous to use the same password for more than one program. If you sign up for a program run by someone of low moral fibre, what is to stop them running through various programs with your username and password to see what they can access?
But of course remembering all the different passwords can be a headache. And writing them down somewhere isn't a great deal safer than using the same password again and again.
You can buy software that stores the passwords for you, but do you really want to pay money for another piece of software that performs a solitary function?
Try this simple, two-step, technique that lets you generate an infinite number of passwords, without having to remember any of them.
Step One: Choose a 4-6 letter word or number sequence that you can remember easily. Needless to say, don't reveal this to anyone. For the purpose of this demonstration, I'll choose the word "cash"
Step Two: Apply this secret word or number sequence to the name of the program you are setting up the password for.
To accomplish this, invent a couple of easy to remember rules.
Rule 1: Decide which part of the program name you are going to use. It could be the whole name, the first 6 letters of the name, the last 8 letters of the name. It's totally up to you, be as creative as you like.
eg ? For the program TrafficSwarm, I might choose the first 8 letters of the name. This give me: "traffics"
Rule 2: Take the portion of the program name you have selected and merge it with your secret word or number sequence to create a unique password. Again, be as creative as you can with this rule. You could replace every second letter, every third letter, every vowel or every consonant.
eg ? If I replace every second letter of "traffics" with my secret word "cash", I get " t c a a f s c h "
or
- If I replace every vowel of "traffics" with my secret word "cash", I get " t r c f f a c s ". The "s" and the "h" are not used as "traffics" has only two vowels, but some words will use all four letters of "cash". Some words might have more than four vowels, in which case just start back at the beginning with "c" and "a" and so on?
You don't have to worry about making your rules overly complex. Even the best code-breakers would need to see several of your passwords before they could start to guess what you rules are.
As long as you keep your rules safe and sound, your password is secure. But the real beauty of this system, is that you don't have to remember the passwords you create. You ONLY have to remember the rules.
When you log into the program the next time, just apply your rules to the program name, and you can work out what password you generated. Once you have been using the rules for a while, you'll generate the password in your head, without even having to pause.
Don't worry if it seems a little complicated at first. Read this article through a couple more times and then try this technique with just a couple of programs. Once you are happy with it, all that's left to do is to start working your way through existing programs and update your passwords. It's time consuming, but for peace of mind you'll be glad you did.
techbuzz posted on Aug 15, 2006
| views: 10087
Comments
-
silverwhisper said on Aug 15, 2006....
techbuzz: good one, this. an idea i struck upon some time ago was taking a particular word or perhaps group of words and l337-ifying them. obviously, this technique is only effective when the application permits special characters... ed -
techbuzz said on Aug 16, 2006....
thx buddy finally someone visited my post..... -
Fire_Star_88 said on Aug 16, 2006....
Interesting, a little complicated but after a time you can get used to it... -
justop26 said on Aug 16, 2006....
Nice tip, techbuzz. I've found that it is really difficult to remember all the passwords... but thanks to Opera (best web browser ever!), the Wand function remembers all of them for me :D -
yeahbutnobut said on Aug 16, 2006....
Dude, Mr. Gauravji, that was a neat post. Good advice. I need to adopt it. Keep 'em coming. -
secretlife said on Aug 16, 2006....
Gee techbuzz, that might work for you techie types; but I need something less complicated for us everyday folks who use VPN and one or two different programs and have to change the passwords every 60 days and make them different than the last 12 times and have at least 1 alpha, 1 numeric, 1 sp character......at be a min of 7 chars long... I end up writing mine down which defeats the whole purpose... -
yeahbutnobut said on Aug 16, 2006....
Well, Secret, not to worry. If you send them to me, I'll be happy to keep 'em safe from prying eyes for you. -
secretlife said on Aug 16, 2006....
What a guy! -
pinkjellybeans said on Aug 17, 2006....
Fantastic post! :) -
anonymous said on Aug 27, 2006....
I've also been l337-ifying my passes, but cool idea. Thnx!
-
wildone said on Aug 27, 2006....
I've also been l337-ifying my passes. Cool idea though. Thnx!
-
SWAPNIL_XXX said on Sep 14, 2006....
I WANT TO KNOW ABT HACKING OF YAHOO & REDIFFMAIL
ID PLZ TELL ME THE SOLUTION
BCOZ SOMEONE IS TRACKING MY ID
OR U CAN SAY SOMEONE IS LICKING THE INFO FROM MY
ID
PLZ TELL ME THE SOLUTION ON THAT
-
gaurav_13 said on Dec 30, 2006....
want to hack rediff password hw cud it possible mail me on gaurav_007_v@yahoomail.com _ -
gaurav_13 said on Dec 30, 2006....
i want to hack rediff password hw cud it possible -
one_two85 said on Jan 07, 2007....
I WANT TO KNOW ABT HACKING OF YAHOO & REDIFFMAIL ID PLZ TELL ME THE SOLUTION -
nimisha said on Jan 08, 2007....
i just want 2 recover one yahoo id password.. so plz reply me abt it on my id;-coolpranav_eternity@yahoo.co.in -
nimisha said on Jan 08, 2007....
i just want 2 recover one yahoo password.. so plz reply me abt it on my id;-coolpranav_eternity@yahoo.co.in -
anonymous said on Jan 24, 2007....
really a nice technic...... -
anonymous said on Apr 10, 2007....
plz help me to find the way of hacking my frnd yahoo password mail me at saruchimahajan2003@yahoo.co.in -
shweta_trikha said on May 08, 2007....
i want to hack rediff id plz mail me at shwetatrikha@gmail.com -
doomi said on Jun 27, 2007....
can u tell me the steps or the soft ware to find password of my old forgotten id pls -
nesoluv2luv said on Nov 04, 2007....
please i want to get the password for my friends email address.and the mail is:chems_cybercafe@yahoo.com.thanks -
anonymous said on Dec 03, 2007....
Do u hav any idea about any hacking software ..........i wanna know. how can i hack a rediff, yahoo and gnail id..............help me..........................plz reply jonson201000@yahoo.com