How to create strong passwords you can actually remember!

About this video

A quick & easy to learn, process to generate AND REMEMBER secure passwords for each website or service that you use.

In this video our Technical Director Rupert Walmsley explains a system he’s used and taught over the years to help people improve their password security, without resorting to random passwords or needing Password Manager to remember.

Introducing the ‘Password Sandwich’

We generate a standard Prefix of 3-4 capitalised Characters, and add a Symbol. EG: NYC+

Then we generate a standard Suffix containing a different Symbol and the year of a memorable event. EG: *97

The ‘filling‘ in the middle of our sandwich, we’re going to substitute some letters for numbers in the name of the service we are logging in to. In this example we are substituting Vowels, but any other codec you chose will work equally as well (as long as you’re consistent!):

Substitutions: a = 4, e = 3, i = 1, o = 0, u = 7
Example: ‘microsoft’ becomes ‘m1cr0s0ft’

Now let’s put our Prefix + Filling + Suffix together, to generate a secure Microsoft password: NYC+m1cr0s0ft*97

The password is more than 10 characters, complex, and it’s easy to work replicate time + time again.

The Prefix + Suffix + Substitution will become natural to you, so you just need to ask yourself “where am I logging in?”

Amazon Password: NYC+4m4z0n*97
Computer Password: NYC+c0mp7t3r*97

Considerations

This process isn’t perfect, and anyone using it should be aware of these potential issues:

• Not as strong as randomly generated passwords
• System could be abused given enough information
• May not meet complexity criteria in all circumstances (ie too complex!)

That said, it’s a great place to start if you’re struggling with setting + forgetting passwords at the moment, or aren’t ready to take a leap into the world of password managers.

Actions to implement

Get started NOW by changing a password you know you use in multiple places, even just in 1 location.

The sooner you learn + implement this process, the quicker it becomes a habit.

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