Password Security: Not Just Billionaire Baby Names

Unless you are χÆA-12 Musk (Official pronunciation: Exeaya /Popular pronunciation: Kyle), you can’t use your name for your passwords. To ensure password security, you will need a plan that only you will know. It is not only a single password, but also a set that you must change regularly for all your essential websites.

Thankfully, there is a clear set of tools that you can use, including both online and offline. If you combine services from premium VPN providers like Le VPN with a competent anti-spyware and anti-malware software and avoid making internet security mistakes to the best of your ability, the chance that you will be hacked will be virtually zero.

Making a good password system may take a bit more time for the groundwork. Once you have your system in place, you will be able to change and modulate your password security options quickly. If your VPN and cyber hygiene are the cornerstones of your cybersecurity, your password upkeep would be your armoring.

Hackers and Bot Nets

In a similar way how remote working allowed for a global workforce in many fields, so did ‘remote hacking’ and collective botnets became a thing. This made any data you give to some shady company a valuable asset to share, even if it can’t be sold on its own.

For instance, a domestic hacker might not have use for your social media account. But, if they are willing to sell that access to a botnet, they will find customers. Someone will use your data and information either for financial or political means, damaging your identity in the process.

Because of this risk, we can’t exclude even our minor social media accounts from regular password changes and general internet safety practices.

Rules for Password Security

These are not rules as much as tips. While companies that take care of their internet security and that of their clients will force you to use multiple types of symbols and letters, they won’t do more than suggest if your password is weak or strong.

Thankfully, these tips are not hard to follow. It is a chance to be creative and to form your system of making passwords and renewing them regularly. Additionally, with online services that offer you to form and save passwords, you might only need to remember one password for your password manager account.

You should always keep a printed sheet with potential changes, simply to have redundancy options if anything becomes compromised.

#1 Use Mnemonics

Example – Hickory Dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock, the clock struck two, the mouse went: boo!

Password: HDDtMRUtCtCS2tMWboo
This simple English nursery rhyme provided you with a complex password that would be unbreakable for someone who doesn’t know how you got to it, and it is generally easy to remember.

If there is a limit to the password length, usually somewhere at eight characters, you can use shorter phrases to formulate a strong password that nobody could ever guess.

#2 Include Every Symbol You Can

Example – 12 Pineapples

Password: I2πNæpРIεS

Always use as many symbols as the service provider allows. If that means just capital and small letter and numbers, use as diverse a mixture as possible.

But, if you can use letters of different alphabets, as well as symbols, you can make easy passwords that are impenetrable even from simple words or phrases. For hackers comparing digital and visual cues, it will be impossible to find the difference between the Latin letter ‘’P’’ and the Cyrillic letter ‘’R’’ (P), but the software will know the difference because they have a different Unicode mark.

#3 Introduce a Nomenclature

Example – 12 Pineapples times 12 Pineapples is 144 Pineapples

Password: CXL4 πNæpРIεS

It sounds silly, but by alternating Roman and Arabic numerals and symbols and alphabets, you can extrapolate future passwords from the current ones. This will make it very easy for you to both form and remember your password, while absurdly tricky for anyone else to guess it.

If you change your password once a month, there wouldn’t be a hacker in the world that could follow you short of standing behind you while you type it in.

For a password like the one in our example, for a hacker to brute-force your password twice, they would need processing power in the range of 2×10²⁷ FLOPS, which is about a million times more than the entire Earth currently has combined.

#4 Online and Offline Lists

Using a password manager is a good idea. There are very good options, and it is a neat way to keep all of your passwords absurdly complex as in our examples without the need to remember precisely which symbols you used and try to find the exact match.

But, having a printed excel sheet also works, and it is especially useful for your single master password. It can also help you if you have a problem with your WiFi home security and limited access to the internet.

What you should worry about that you won’t be able to remember which type of symbol is which, so it is usually better to make a longer master password with less similar-looking letters and more completely different Unicode symbols and numbers.

#5 Be Sneaky

Example – Your mother’s maiden name?

Answer: Robert Oppenheimer, the Destroyer of Worlds

An excellent way to fool anyone trying to hack your security questions is to lie outright and remember the false answer. Someone hacking you, especially if you left your social media accounts visible, can check public records and find out the true answer to the question. Then, they will be blocked once they enter the true answer that would not be the correct answer.

Finally, making a similar system for these security questions is also a good idea, so you would remember what you lied about.

Conclusion

While password security might seem like a game of cat and mouse between you and the hacker, it is an easy system to maintain once you set it up.

Ideally, you will want to restrict as much of your private information, including your IP address and personal data from even reaching someone. For this, you will need a professional VPN provider like Le VPN on all of your devices, as well as solid internal anti-malware software solutions.

But, if anything does happen, you will be safe knowing that your password is unbreakable by any means.