Proxy Glider

In this previous article, I shared an infographic with dozens of great tips on how to create a secure password.

“But I’m not that imaginative!” some people complain. Actually everyone I know who read my article and looked at the infographic complained that way.

So I decided to see how serious the lack of secure passwords really was. I started polling people, randomly, asking them how secure they thought their passwords were, and then asking them to type their password into howsecureismypassword.net to test them and let them see for themselves how long it would take for someone to crack their password.

100% of the people I polled thought their password was secure. 99% had passwords that could be cracked with a minute. 0.9% had passwords that could be cracked within a day. Less than 0.1% had actual secure passwords.

Some people actually said they don’t remember passwords. They write them down so that they won’t forget them. I suppose this works well if you never travel anywhere… but what happens when you go on a trip and your computer bag with your laptop and password list suddenly goes missing?

Others said they store their passwords on their computer. I get a migraine when I hear someone tell me that the passwords to their life are stored on their computer. You’re just begging to be hacked or have a nice computer virus aren’t you?

A few other people I know said they based their passwords off of their names… (oh, don’t laugh yet, it gets better!).

One person told me his password is his first name (which only about 10,000 people know is Steve).

One person, who had a very interesting password with 9 numbers at the beginning followed by his name and a concluding 6 numbers at the end, told me that he based his password on social security number, his name, and his date of birth!

From another hundred responses, I garnished passwords like God, 12345678, qwerty, doctorwho… and etc.

Let me repeat the guidelines for a strong password.

1. A strong password has at least 15 characters.
2. A strong password uses uppercase characters.
3. A strong password is NOT made up of only uppercase letters.
4. A strong password uses lowercase characters.
5. A strong password is NOT made up of only lowercase letters.
6. A strong password uses numbers.
7. A strong password is NOT made up of only numbers.
8. A strong password uses symbols, such as !@#$%^&*()[]{}_-<>,.?/\|
9. A strong password is NOT made up of only symbols
10. A strong password is NOT found on only one row of the computer keyboard.
11. A strong password is NOT like your previous password.
12. A strong password is NOT your name.
13. A strong password does NOT use any part of your name.
14. A strong password is NOT your login ID.
15. A strong password does NOT use any part of your login ID.
16. A strong password is NOT your friend’s name.
17. A strong password is NOT the password your friend uses.
18. A strong password is NOT a family member’s name.
19. A strong password is NOT the password another family member uses.
20. A strong password is NOT a dictionary word.
21. A strong password is NOT your bank account number.
22. A strong password is NOT your social security number.
23. A strong password is NOT your Military ID number.
24. A strong password is NOT one that unlocks a bunch of stored passwords.

If this list of rules has left you feeling a little awkward, it might be time to change your password.

Below I am going to list my top 10 password making sites to help inspire you to change your password that you thought would never be cracked.

1. http://maord.com/ - This is my current favorite password generation site! It can generate up to 2500 passwords at a time, and includes features like MD5 and SHA1 hash values for encryption
2. www.passwordcard.org/en - For those of you who feel the need to have your passwords in print, Password Card does just that. It prints multiple secure passwords on a wallet-sized card for you to print, laminate, and save.
3. http://randomkeygen.com/ - Generates a full page of passwords that you can print and use.
4. www.us-webmasters.com/Random-Password-Generator/ - Generates a list of passwords. This is good for you people who write them down; you can print out a sheet of secure passwords - just don’t make any marks on the page to show which password you are using.
5. www.passwordchart.com/ - This is a unique way to make a password! Type in a passphrase, and it generates a wallet-size chart using your passphrase. You can then use the chart to make other secure passwords that you will have no trouble remembering.
6. www.freepasswordgenerator.com - Generates a list of passwords. This password site removes 0, O, |, I, 1 and l to avoid possible confusion and future misspelling of your password.
7. www.grc.com/passwords.htm - Every time you refresh the page it generates a new set of high-quality, maximum entropy, pseudo-random number, cryptographic-strength passwords. Don’t change your password until you’ve copied it down! Otherwise your computer will be secure from you as well.
8. www.safepasswd.com/ - This generator can make passwords that are both easy to remember or secure.
9. www.randpass.com/ - This site doesn’t generate the most secure passwords. However for people who have trouble remembering really long passwords all the passwords generated here are only 8 characters long.
10. http://makemeapassword.net/ - The sister site to howsecureismypassword.net. Probably generates secure passwords, but I mostly like it because it offers a good example on how you can change letters and numbers in a password in order to make it more secure.