Create a Better Password
I hate passwords. I hate it when I’m asked for eight to 12 characters. I hate when I need to use a capital letter, a number and, especially, a symbol. I hate when I have to set stupid security questions. I know we need passwords in our modern, tech-dependent lives — but I still hate them.
I have a confession: I use the same password, in various combinations of capital letters, numbers and a special character, depending on the requirements. I know it’s stupid and everyone tells me not to do it, but give me a break — I have more than 20 other passwords to remember.
If you’re like me, you’re terrible at passwords, but that’s not our fault. The human brain, in fact, isn’t wired for it. We have a hard time remembering new passwords, because our brains are distracted by all the old ones — past and present — that are rattling around in our heads. So when you “remember” new logins, your brain needs to block out the distractions, or essentially forget the unnecessary digits or words of the old, to remember the new.
Easier said than done. We have too many passwords. The result is serious fatigue, to the point where some think solving world peace is easier than trying to remember all their passwords. Is it any surprise that we collectively hate passwords?
As a result, people like me do dumb things, creating a few password variations to help an increasingly untenable situation. Or we do even dumber things, like use passwords such as “password” or “123456.” Or we create a “base” password and add a variation for each site. Need a password for eBay, for example? “asdf” and “ebay”… “asdfebay” — voila! We know it’s stupid, but we’re driven to these solutions because our memories just can’t remember all those passwords.
Whatever we’re doing, it’s not working: nearly two-in-five people have to ask for assistance on their username or password for at least one website a month. So if you can’t remember your password, don’t feel stupid — you definitely aren’t alone.
But that difficulty in remembering creates dangerous security backdoors. More than 90 percent of passwords — even those with capitals and symbols, considered strong by IT departments — will be vulnerable to hacking.
So what is the solution? First off, create a better password. When making a new password, it’s important to use a different password for each service, make your password hard to guess, set a recovery option and keep your password safe.
Will this solve all of our collective password woes? I am guessing not, but it is a secure start.
