$ Strategies: Powerful, Easy Passwords

If you ever suspect a favorite website has been hacked, run a malware and virus scan on the devices used to access the site, then change your password. For sites with financial accounts such as online banks, utilities, or credit cards, create unique passwords that are not used with any other type of site. If a hacker gets your password from a favorite shopping site, social media site, or even from work, they can't empty your checking account and clone your credit cards.

The creation of passwords is tricky and exhausting. Never: use the same password for everything, use birth-dates, sports jersey numbers, addresses, ID numbers, pet or family names, or use the word 'password.' And if a word appears on any of your social media platforms, don't use it. The challenge is to create one you can remember that isn't your last name followed by one, two, three. So what do you do? You can come up with lists of passwords, get a password generator, or try the key-and-lock approach.

This method breaks the password into two pieces. The first half is a standard password like BlueB04. The second half is related to the specific site. This could be the first letters of the site's address, the company name, or any other information relating to the account. In effect, a single password becomes many. Examples: BlueB04Costco, BlueB04SBUX, BlueB04XYZ123 … With financially significant sites like a bank, you could use a special code or pin between the two parts. Example FIN for financial would look like: BlueB04FINXYZ123 – the longer the password the better.

There is a different technique altogether. Instead of picking some absurd concept to encode on a keyboard like BlueB04, use the keyboard as a landscape and plot a pattern the same way most phones are opened. For example, a straight, horizontal line would be 'qwerty.' Your password becomes a simple, geographical pattern on the keyboard, like a little journey or dance your fingers play out in a specific way. Think of a picture-key. This method consists of circles, taps, and swipes over an image. Simply translate that to the keyboard. You start at a point and walk a predetermined path. This makes the password easy to remember, super-fast to enter, and can be quickly changed by simply starting with a new key but following the same shape.  

The ultimate strength of a password is its randomness. Personally, I use a combination of both techniques in three sections: first, a pattern; second, a standard; and third, a site-related. Example: qwertyBlueB04XYZ123. This tactic produces powerful, easily-managed passwords.