Choosing a Good Password

Passwords should satisfy two criteria. They should be:

• easy to remember, and 
• hard to guess.

Do NOT use:

• Names:
  • of yourself, including nicknames;
  • of your spouse or significant other, of your parents, children, siblings, pets, or other family members; 
  • of fictional characters, especially ones from fantasy or sci-fi stories like Lord_of_the_Rings_ or Star_Trek_; 
  • of any place or proper noun;
  • of computers or computer systems; 
  • any combination of any of the above. 
• Numbers, including: 
  • your phone number; 
  • your social security number; 
  • anyone's birthday; 
  • your driver's license number or license plate; 
  • your room number or address; 
  • any common number like 3.1415926 or 1.618034; 
  • any series such as 1248163264; 
  • any combination of any of the above.
• Any username in any form, including: 
  • capitalized (Joeuser); 
  • doubled (joeuserJoeuser); 
  • reversed (resueoJ); 
  • reflected (joeuserResueoj); 
  • with numbers or symbols appended (Joeuser!). 
• Any word in any dictionary in any language in any form.
• Any word you think isn't in a dictionary, including: 
  • any slang word or obscenity; 
  • any technical term or jargon (BartleMUD, microfortnight, Oobleck). 
• Any common phrase: 
  • "Go ahead, make my day." 
  • "Brother, can you spare a dime?" 
  • "1 fish, 2 fish, red fish, blue fish." 
• Simple patterns, including: 
  • passwords of all the same letter; 
  • simple keyboard patterns (querty, asdfjkl); 
  • anything that someone might easily recognize if they see you typing it. 
• Any information about you that is easily obtainable: 
  • favorite color; 
  • favorite rock group.
• Any object that is in your field of vision at your workstation. 
• Any password that you have used in the past.

There are programs (and they are easy to write) which will crack passwords that are based on the above.

Do:

• Change your password once a month. 
• Use numbers with letters (although it must begin with an alphabetic character). 
• Create simple mnemonics (memory aids) or compounds that are easily remembered, yet hard to decipher: 
  • "aR2s2uaPssWDS" for "Acronyms are too short to use as passwords!" 
  • "IwadaSnatCwt2bmPbtct." for "It was a dark and stormy night, and the crackers were trying to break my password, but they couldn't." 
  • "HmPwaCciaCccP?" for "How many passwords would a cracker crack if a cracker could crack passwords?" 
• Use two or more words together (Yet_Another_Example). 
• Use misspelled words (WhutdooUmeenIkan'tSpel?).
• Finally, NEVER write your password down anywhere, nor share your password with anyone, including your best friend!