Security Short: Choosing a strong password

Folks, I know that we all have problems with choosing a strong password. I do, you do, your parents do. How do we fix this but keep it simple? Well, there are two ways.

The first: Passphrases. Password is a bit misleading. Some websites and/or applications support long passwords. So, why not use a phrase with proper punctuation and case? It would be complex as it would contain upper and lower characters and special characters. If you can use a long password, try this method. Just make sure it is a phrase that only you would know and would be very difficult to guess.

The second method is to use a sentence as a password template. For example, say the following is true:

“My favorite Country band is Rascal Flatts!”

Now, what we do is use the first letter of every word with proper case and we use the punctuation. So, now we have a password that is: “MfCbiRF!” This is fairly complex. Let’s make it one better. Append a number to the end of it. You could use a date, such as the date you created the password, so you know how old it is. Now we have the following password: “MfCbiRF!0812” The longer your template sentence, the better your password.

Just my thoughts. Let me hear yours in the comments.