Badie05
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Making a Secure Password - Tutorial!Making a Secure Password...
Ok you want to make a password but you can't come up with something great. You try to be original but you keep ending up using a family member or pets name. You don't know what to do after that step anyways. So you are left with an easily guessable password holding all your valuables. How can you combat it? You can read this guide.
Step 1: Find the base of your password.
Ok so the first step in any password is having a base word. Many will disagree that random series of letters and numbers are better. Maybe true, however you might forget it yourself. In truth the best password is an easy to remember word that is modified to the point where it is barely guessable. Many people will choose a family member or pet. This is the first thing a hacker would guess so we will use something slightly different. You are obviously at your computer or palm pilot right now. Look around at the various hardware brand names. Your printer, speakers, monitor, mouse, keyboard even your surge outlet. I am going to use my printer for example. The printers manufacturer is HP. HP, stands for Hewlett Packard. Two words is quite a long password and it may trough a hacker of his trail if you only use half a name so I will take "Hewlett" as my base password.
Step 2: 1337-a-fy.
1337 is a mock internet language, better described as a "fad". Most people on a forum would know how to use it and I am 100 percent sure there is one of you reading this that is fluent in it. For those of you who don't here is a quick lesson. 1337 stands for "Elite". It is the English language, except modified by replacing letters with numbers and symbols. There are 4 different levels to it.
Too Easy: This is the most basic level. You only replace the vowels with alternate characters. A=4 E=3 and I=1 O=0. Using this method Hewlett would become H3wl3tt.
Normal: This is the 1337 most use. You replace the all letters except you only use the numbers as replacement characters. 1=L 3=E 4=H 5=S 7=T. Using this method Hewlett would become 43w1377.
Medium: I don't really know who uses this but heres how it works. You replace every possible letter except rather than using just the numbers 0-9 you also use the symbols you get when you hold shift + a number. !=I @=A $=S, etc. Using this method on Hewlett I would get the same result as using normal 1337; 43w1337.
Hardcore: Hardcore is pretty tough. Tough and tough. Gather than replacing letters with numbers and symbols you construct the letter from lines and combinations of symbols on the keyboard. It would give me a brain overload to do the whole alphabet in this so I won't give you a translation, you can, however get an idea from a few examples. h = |-| M= /\/\ D=|).
Hybrid (hardcore/normal or medium): Hybrid means a combination of two or more. In hybrid l337 you combine medium and normal with hardcore. How do you do this? You write in hardcore but at points where you can place the more simple symbols and numbers without taking away from the effect. This is also much faster. Now, where can I put these and not take away from the "effect"? I can't tell you. I all depends on how you infer.
Step 2.5: Choosing which suites you best
This is not a concretely determinable step. It depends on your skill with 1337 and how many vowels/replaceable letters are in your word. I will, however, try to help. First of do not use Hardcore or hybrid. Think about it, would you like to type |-| for every H in your password. Me thinks not. So pretty much it is between too easy, normal and medium. Translate your word into those two types and then decide based on this. You do need numbers but you also need lots of letters. Remember, random series of numbers/letters are not good for remembering! For me, I would pick too easy. If I were to go any higher a level I would be left with but 1 letter.
Side Note
There are many sites on the web that offer "1337 translators". You can use these to translate your text without having to learn the "language", so to speak. Try Mr. Google and see what he has to say on it.
[LEFT]Step 3: Case Sensitivity
This is the easiest and and near final part of making your Secure password. Just take all the letters and make them capitals and lower case at a regular interval. So for me H3wl3tt, becomes H3wL3tT. Easy as pie.
Step 4: Dashes and under scores
These aren't required, however they do increase your passwords strength by that much. There are two ways to easily do this. You can pick one or the other or combine the two. The first way is to find the natural break in a word and insert a hyphen / underscore. To find the natural clap out the word. In between each syllable is a new break. The second way is to insert an emoticon into your password. How do you decide on the emoticon? Well my technique is this; Log into msn and message the first online person you notice. Ask them about something they did today. After they tell their story question, yourself, "What emotion does this make me feel"? If it makes you feel sad put a crying emoticon Cry. If it makes you feel angry put an angry emoticon, > . Or happy, Smiley. Where you put it is up to you.
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Now you have a great, secure, virtually un-guessable password to protect your valuables!
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