Creating a Strong Password You Can Remember: Innovative Ideas

Creating a strong password is an easy task for anyone. The huge challenge is how to create a strong password you can remember.

This is a comprehensive guide on how to make a strong password you can remember for multiple accounts you have for your registered web apps, software or any accounts associated with a password access level.

What is a strong password?

First, let's dive into what makes a strong password. Wikipedia's Common Guidelines for a Strong Password lists down some common guidelines for general ideas:

• Use a minimum password length of 12 to 14 characters.
• Include lowercase and uppercase alphabetic characters, numbers and symbols.
• Generate passwords randomly where feasible.

Strong Password Examples

Nothing beats seeing some real examples of a strong password to get clearer picture of overall idea. A quick example of a strong password based on the guidelines above is al9G^k,/?12sdF*.

To get better understanding of how a strong password should look like. Refer to the following table comparison of password strength to get more inspirations on all these work out.

OK Password:	Better Password:	Strong Password:
carl	1carl	1ci77y
susan	Susan53	.Susan53.
jellyfish	jelly22fish	J3lly22Fish
allwhite	Allwhites!	A11wh1t3k$!
Rihanna	R1hanna	R1h@nn@
adamsandler	adamSandler	#adamS@ndler
ilovemypiano	ILoveMyPiano	ILov3MyPi@no
ihateliverandonions	1Hateliver@ndonions	1Hat3liver@Onions!
mypuppylikescheese	MyPuppyLikesCh33s3	.MyPuppyLikesCh33s3

Lifehacker has also put together a very informative infographic for creating a strong password:

Innovative ideas on How to Make a Strong Password You Can Remember

We have come to the important gem of this entire resource. Following are Charles Internet's unique ways to make a strong password you can remember for your multiple accounts on Internet.

01. Choose a story to associate with your password

Think of a story, preferably not easily being guessed that you can relate to the password you are going to set. Make sure you are the only one who knows that 'story'.

For example, the story could be "I want to be a Billionaire".
Hence, the password could be formed by extracting out only the initial of each word:

I want to be a Billionaire = iwtbaB

There you go! You have formed your first strong alphabet story-based password.

The most powerful part of this idea is that the story could be in any of your choice of native language - English, Chinese pin yin, Spanish, France, Japanese, Korean, Indonesia, India and more - which will make it even harder to guess if it's not just plain English.

REMINDER: Never associate a relevant story to the account you have set up.

Now, let's move on to the next idea for generating number-based password.

02. Take out your old handphone

Before the Smartphone Era, everyone was used to text, and use the Prediction Text Typing on the most classic handphone, e.g Nokia 3310 in those days. Just in case, you weren't aware how to use the prediction text, let's look at an example with image illustration below:

Think of a story, and imagine you are typing on the handphone, pressing the keypads to type the word.
Let's use different story as example, 'I Love You':

I Love You = 45683968 based on Prediction Text Typing

Therefore, your potential number-based password is 45683968 using this example.

03. Replace word with number

Replace the shot form word with number, those that pronounce very similar to your understand. Examples:

Convert Word to Number

Want	------->	1
To	------->	2
For	------->	4

Let's say you intend to associate the password with ' I want to be a Millionaire'. So, your potential password could be 'i12baM' based on combinations of first creative step.

04. Replace word with short form or abbreviation

Replace word with short form or abbreviation, preferably short form that not everyone commonly understood. Remember, all these ideas are meant to be easily remembered but not easily being guessed out.

Examples:

Convert Word to Shortform / Abbreviation

Because	------->	bcoz
Why	------->	y
Love	------->	Luv
Be Right Back	------->	brb

So, again incorporating these as part of your password creation.

05. Insert Special Characters as part of the password

Special Characters are:- (    [ ] ; ' , . "/ !+_@#$%^&*()-=<>?:{}|\    )

This is considerably the most difficult part to remember once you blend in Special Characters as part of the password.

Here are few tricks that you can use to remember special character better:

1. Most keyboards are generally QWERTY standard keyboard, where many of these special characters are positioned on the same keypad as the number. For example:

1	<------->	!
2	<------->	@
3	<------->	#
4	<------->	$
5	<------->	%

Hence, whichever number you are going to use as the password, press a 'Shift' to turn it into special character instead. In other words, you still remember the 'numbers' as part the password, but each time you type it, you gotta press 'shift' to turn the number into special character instead.

2. For every alphabet that is adjacent to the special characters, so include that special characters adjacent to it as part of the password. Examples:

L	------->	;
M	<------->	,
U	<------->	&

Embedding in Special Characters into your password is definitely going to make it extremely strong, reducing your chance of being hacked.

06. FINAL STEP: Blend all 5 processes above into one single password

Now that you have all the 5 ideas above, please understand that you have to use all these 5 ideas + any unique ideas you have and blend them all into one password.

Not to mention, you shouldn't use one universal password for all your accounts, or else, it's an Online Account Suicide.

How Strong is My Password?

How strong is my password? Well, this is a question that has been asked million times due to the tremendous resources on Internet with massive amount of definitions of a strong password. There are both Manual and Automated on checking how strong is the password you have created.

Manual Way to check how strong is your password

One manual action you can check how strong is your password is using the guidelines from the resources mentioned above and check it. However, this is very time consuming to get an estimation of how strong is your password.

Automated Way to check how strong is your password

Time is money. So, you should opt for an automated way of checking your password strength effectively.

FIrst Option: How Secure Is My Password tool
Check how strong is your password using How Secure is My Password tool to get a rough estimation on how strong your password is.

How Secure is My Password tool provides hands-on educational feedback based on the password you enter in the input box. However, you should take note that the results cannot be always accurate and serves as an estimation only.

One of the strong passwords sample I have entered into the input box based on guidelines above, received such feedback:

The weaker your password is, the more suggestions it provides to make your password stronger. Here's an example weak password entered in the input box:

One great advantage of this tool is that it transmits data over HTTPS connection which is pretty secure in a way.

However, you should proceed with your own risk of using the site. We are not affiliated in any way with the suggested site. It was suggested based on helpfulness of the site as a quick estimation of the password strength and educational purpose.

Second Option: Password Meter tool
I found Password Meter tool to be another handy resource in estimating a good strong password. However, I'm a little bit hesitated to recommend this tool because it doesn't transmits data over HTTPS connection as the first option which is a huge turn-down.

Use this in your own risk as we wouldn't be sure if they actually store your password or not, which I believe no. Again, use it with precaution.

We tested this tool with a considerable weak 'Password' as the password and it returned this:

What interesting about this Password Meter tool is you can see that it gives you a full description about the positive and negative points about the password with type, rates etc. to calculate a score of the password with some details explanation.

More Tips on How to Create a Strong Password

With a good understanding on what makes a strong password and how to check its strength, you should now review some highly recommended ways of how to make a strong password tips.

• Enable Two-Factor Authentication
• Avoid Worst Passwords
• Leverage Login with Google, Facebook, Twitter and more

Enable Two-Factor Authentication

Use Two-Factor Authentication for all websites that support it. This is a top recommendation by many what experts believe to mitigate the risk of your password being hacked included the Head of Google’s Webspam team, Matt Cutts.

Matt Cutts strongly suggested to enable Two-Factor Authentication in his own word:

Two-factor authentication means “something you know” (like a password) and “something you have,” which can be an object like a phone.

Still no idea what Two-Factor Authentication is all about? Google Support page helps to explain how Two-Factor Authentication works:

1. Enter your password
Whenever you sign in to Google you'll enter your username and password as usual.

2. You’ll be asked for something else
Then, you'll be asked for a code that will be sent to you via text, voice call, or our mobile app. Or, if you have a Security Key, you can insert it into your computer’s USB port.

Avoid Worst Passwords

Now, this is one very obvious way for strong password tips is of course to avoid your password being listed on the Worst Passwords of all time list:

NO	Top 1-100	Top 101–200	Top 201–300	Top 301–400	Top 401–500
1	123456	porsche	firebird	prince	rosebud
2	password	guitar	butter	beach	jaguar
3	12345678	chelsea	united	amateur	great
4	1234	black	turtle	7777777	cool
5	pussy	diamond	steelers	muffin	cooper
6	12345	nascar	tiffany	redsox	1313
7	dragon	jackson	zxcvbn	star	scorpio
8	qwerty	cameron	tomcat	testing	mountain
9	696969	654321	golf	shannon	madison
10	mustang	computer	bond007	murphy	987654
11	letmein	amanda	bear	frank	brazil
12	baseball	wizard	tiger	hannah	lauren
13	master	xxxxxxxx	doctor	dave	japan
14	michael	money	gateway	eagle1	naked
15	football	phoenix	gators	11111	squirt
16	shadow	mickey	angel	mother	stars
17	monkey	bailey	junior	nathan	apple
18	abc123	knight	thx1138	raiders	alexis
19	pass	iceman	porno	steve	aaaa
20	fuckme	tigers	badboy	forever	bonnie
21	6969	purple	debbie	angela	peaches
22	jordan	andrea	spider	viper	jasmine
23	harley	horny	melissa	ou812	kevin
24	ranger	dakota	booger	jake	matt
25	iwantu	aaaaaa	1212	lovers	qwertyui
26	jennifer	player	flyers	suckit	danielle
27	hunter	sunshine	fish	gregory	beaver
28	fuck	morgan	porn	buddy	4321
29	2000	starwars	matrix	whatever	4128
30	test	boomer	teens	young	runner
31	batman	cowboys	scooby	nicholas	swimming
32	trustno1	edward	jason	lucky	dolphin
33	thomas	charles	walter	helpme	gordon
34	tigger	girls	cumshot	jackie	casper
35	robert	booboo	boston	monica	stupid
36	access	coffee	braves	midnight	shit
37	love	xxxxxx	yankee	college	saturn
38	buster	bulldog	lover	baby	gemini
39	1234567	ncc1701	barney	cunt	apples
40	soccer	rabbit	victor	brian	august
41	hockey	peanut	tucker	mark	3333
42	killer	john	princess	startrek	canada
43	george	johnny	mercedes	sierra	blazer
44	sexy	gandalf	5150	leather	cumming
45	andrew	spanky	doggie	232323	hunting
46	charlie	winter	zzzzzz	4444	kitty
47	superman	brandy	gunner	beavis	rainbow
48	asshole	compaq	horney	bigcock	112233
49	fuckyou	carlos	bubba	happy	arthur
50	dallas	tennis	2112	sophie	cream
51	jessica	james	fred	ladies	calvin
52	panties	mike	johnson	naughty	shaved
53	pepper	brandon	xxxxx	giants	surfer
54	1111	fender	tits	booty	samson
55	austin	anthony	member	blonde	kelly
56	william	blowme	boobs	fucked	paul
57	daniel	ferrari	donald	golden	mine
58	golfer	cookie	bigdaddy	0	king
59	summer	chicken	bronco	fire	racing
60	heather	maverick	penis	sandra	5555
61	hammer	chicago	voyager	pookie	eagle
62	yankees	joseph	rangers	packers	hentai
63	joshua	diablo	birdie	einstein	newyork
64	maggie	sexsex	trouble	dolphins	little
65	biteme	hardcore	white	0	redwings
66	enter	666666	topgun	chevy	smith
67	ashley	willie	bigtits	winston	sticky
68	thunder	welcome	bitches	warrior	cocacola
69	cowboy	chris	green	sammy	animal
70	silver	panther	super	slut	broncos
71	richard	yamaha	qazwsx	8675309	private
72	fucker	justin	magic	zxcvbnm	skippy
73	orange	banana	lakers	nipples	marvin
74	merlin	driver	rachel	power	blondes
75	michelle	marine	slayer	victoria	enjoy
76	corvette	angels	scott	asdfgh	girl
77	bigdog	fishing	2222	vagina	apollo
78	cheese	david	asdf	toyota	parker
79	matthew	maddog	video	travis	qwert
80	121212	hooters	london	hotdog	time
81	patrick	wilson	7777	paris	sydney
82	martin	butthead	marlboro	rock	women
83	freedom	dennis	srinivas	xxxx	voodoo
84	ginger	fucking	internet	extreme	magnum
85	blowjob	captain	action	redskins	juice
86	nicole	bigdick	carter	erotic	abgrtyu
87	sparky	chester	jasper	dirty	777777
88	yellow	smokey	monster	ford	dreams
89	camaro	xavier	teresa	freddy	maxwell
90	secret	steven	jeremy	arsenal	music
91	dick	viking	11111111	access14	rush2112
92	falcon	snoopy	bill	wolf	russia
93	taylor	blue	crystal	nipple	scorpion
94	111111	eagles	peter	iloveyou	rebecca
95	131313	winner	pussies	alex	tester
96	123123	samantha	cock	florida	mistress
97	bitch	house	beer	eric	phantom
98	hello	miller	rocket	legend	billy
99	scooter	flower	theman	movie	6666
100	please	jack	oliver	success	albert

SplashData, which makes password management applications, has released its annual list of the 25 worst passwords based on files containing over 3.3. million passwords leaked in 2014.

The full list of the worst password of 2014 released by SplashData:

1. 123456
2. password
3. 12345
4. 12345678
5. qwerty
6. 123456789
7. 1234
8. baseball
9. dragon
10. football
11. 1234567
12. monkey
13. letmein
14. abc123
15. 111111
16. mustang
17. access
18. shadow
19. master
20. michael
21. superman
22. 696969
23. 123123
24. batman
25. trustno1

Looks familiar? If it happens that your password is listed on anywhere on this Worst Password list. Please change your password immediately.

Leverage Login with Google, Facebook, Twitter and more

There are more and more websites today implemented and provided you an option to login with Google, Facebook, Twitter or other popular social media account. One of them is the very popular Question and Answer Social Media, Quora as shown below:

Why you should leverage on Login With Google, Facebook etc?
The reason being is, you can login to the site using Google Login Session, meaning you just need to log in to your Google account, and the site which you authorize utilizes the login session of your Google account to provide you access to the service.

But, beware of a trick by some websites which I found it annoying. Some websites seem to offer you with the 'Login With Google' option, but it still requires you to enter your password after selecting the option 'Login With Google' because they only pulled data from your respective accounts  (Google, Facebook or Twitter account) but not the login session.

I usually quickly disallow websites that do this as all I wanted originally was to login with my google account instead of entering another new password.

Other General Strong Password Tips

• Avoid Predictable Password Formulas
• Use a Unique Password for Each Site
• Use Truly Random Passwords
• Avoid using information that is or might become publicly associated with the user or the account
• Avoid using information that the user's colleagues and/or acquaintances might know to be associated with the user
• Avoid character repetition, keyboard patterns, dictionary words, letter or number sequences, usernames, relative or pet names, romantic links (current or past) and biographical information (e.g., ID numbers, ancestors' names or dates)
• Do not use passwords which consist wholly of any simple combination of the aforementioned weak components

Why a lot of People Gave Up on Creating a Strong Password

Most people gave up after forgetting many times of the strong password they created. Remember, the password that you set is not permanent or rigid. You can change it whenever you want to.

The fist time I adopted very strong complicated password for many different accounts, I tend to keep forgetting the passwords. Well, just hit the 'Forgot Password' from the service account you are using, and think of new password using the resources from this page to reset your forgotten password.

The effective process of this is to keep repeating this entire process until you finally remember the strong password you have created for your accounts.

If you use the account often enough, you will eventually able to remember the strong password you set after doing it many many times - The key point here is to practice — Practice makes better.

Conclusion

It worth all the hassles and inconvenience once you master how to create a strong password you can remember especially in this Technology Era, where we have more Internet accounts than collection of cards. It's better to be inconvenient than to be sorry.

As a summary of this, the one key secret to remember a strong password is to associate a story with the account but highly irrelevant to make it not guessable.

Best of Luck in staying secure on Internet with a strong password!

Do you have better ideas that you can share with us for creating strong password that can be easily remembered?

Do leave your comments below to share with us for a safer Internet community to live. 🙂