How to control your passwords, until they get extinct.
What passwords have become?
Passwords aren’t the newest thing on the internet. They were first introduced in 1961 (50+ years ago) and nothing changed about them.
People tend to use passwords that are easy for them to remember, which makes it easy for computers to guess. For example, some of the Adobe’s Top20 user passwords are qwerty, 123123, iloveyou, letmein and were used by 1.9 million people.
Password Managers, after becoming successful as products, are also becoming targets for hackers (and some of them have been hacked already).
People are using passwords on almost every website they visit every day. We are doing it wrong all along from the beginning, since we either use the same ‘‘secure’’ password to all logins or try to remember all of the different ones.
Through 20 years of effort, we’ve successfully trained ourselves to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess.
How to actually control all your passwords without having to remember any of them.
There are some details we usually use in our common passwords which make them weak. My concept is to change those with something pretty common to me but not to others.
Instead of your name use a simple word you can remember, for your birthday use your mother’s birthday or your dog’s.
Don’t use common words or keyboard patterns because it is easier to remember ( password, 123456, qwerty, etc.)
Also, try not to use the same passwords along multiple applications.
The concept.
Now the concept is that instead of creating a different password for every application, create a standard algorithm based on simple if then, then that rules (in your mind) which will create a different password for each application and every time you need to log in somewhere you just recreate it.
So I’m going to need some assets to use in the algorithm rules:
date: 14–9–2016 (the day I got my dog)
keyword: rabbit (random everyday word — a word in your native language is preferable)
For this example, I will choose to generate the password for Facebook.com
Rule #1
The count of letters in the domain
8
Rule #2
If the Rule #1 number is even use a =, else if it is odd use a — .
8=
Rule #3
Use the day number from the date adding the digit from Rule #1.
8=22
Rule #4
If the first letter of the domain is vowel use it in uppercase, else if it is consonant use it in lowercase.
8=22f
Rule #5
Use the month digit(s) from the date adding the digit from Rule #1.
8=22f17
Rule #6
If the last letter of the domain is vowel use it in uppercase, else if it is consonant use it in lowercase.
8=22f17k
Rule #7
Use the year’s digits from the date this time removing the digit from Rule #1.
8=22f17k2008
Rule #8
If the domain has .com at the end use the keyword in lowercase, else if it has anything else use the keyword in uppercase.
8=22f17k2008rabbit
Rule #9
Always use a . at the end of the password
8=22f17k2008rabbit.
So now you just have to remember only 9 rules for all your passwords.
Here are the passwords that this algorithm will generate on other apps:
Google.com: 6=20g15E2010rabbit.
Spotify.com: 7–21s16Y2009rabbit.
You can, of course, add more rules to your algorithm or make some more complicated to others (try to keep it simple to calculations between numbers and letters).
How I came up with the idea.
I got my phone stolen, so I had to change all my passwords.
I started with some weird rules that were even hard for me to remember, but within a week I came up with 14 simple rules for myself. Try to keep it simple and smart than complicated and obvious (that’s the point after all).
When you start using it, It will be a bit slower than usual to type the password, but you weren’t any faster the first time you used a password. You might also have the need to see what you type, but trust me it is just a matter of time to get used to it.
Either you use this concept or not, sooner or later passwords are getting replaced by magic links. Medium has already implemented this. So find a way to manage all these useless keywords you are forced to use until they become history.
