Passwords: Complexity equals easy to forget

One of the key components of a good security policy is the enforcement of strong passwords. In many cases, a strong password requires the following:

Seeing these restrictions often leads one to think that users must select a password that is so complex that they often can't remember it, Such as oA16I8aCCp.

But in fact, "oA16I8aCCp" is an easy to remember password if you know one simple fact:

As humans, we can remember activities, events, people and occurrences. We especially remember things that happen to us or near us that are either exciting, dangerous or at least out of the ordinary (subjective to each individual).

Using this fact, I suggest to users to think of an event that they can easily remember. When they think of that event, try to think of a simple sentence to describe that event. In most cases, the sentence will be the one you generally use to communicate the event to someone else. Such as "Hey Bob, I just saw the weirdest thing during lunch," or "Amanda, I just went hang gliding in the Virgin Islands!" Now, add a date to the sentence: "On July 5, I saw a weird thing during lunch."

Next, take the first letter of every word, and keep any numbers: OJ5Isawtdl

You can elect to drop common words such as "a," "in," or "the." You can also choose to alternate capitalization. When possible, change out a letter (or entire words) for numbers which are similar, such as three for e/E or one for i/I/l/L or even eight for "ate." You could even throw in a number sign "#" before the mention of any numbers from your initial sentence.

In my first example, oA16I8aCCp is created from the sentence

To continue reading for free, register below or login

Requires Membership to View

To gain access to this and all member only content, please provide the following information (all fields required):

First Name:
Last Name:
Country: Select... Afghanistan Aland Islands Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua and Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands Central African Republic Chad Chile China Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo Congo, Democratic Republic of Cook Islands Costa Rica Cote D'Ivoire Croatia Cuba Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia, The Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard and McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Korea, North Korea, South Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macau Macedonia Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Man, Isle of Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands Norway Oman Pakistan Palau Palestine Panama Panama Canal Zone Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Reunion Romania Russia Rwanda Saint Helena Saint Kitts and Nevis Saint Lucia Saint Pierre and Miquelon Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Samoa San Marino Sao Tome and Principe Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands Spain Sri Lanka Sudan Suriname Svalbard Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Syria Taiwan Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand Timor-Leste Togo Tokelau Tonga Trinidad and Tobago Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu U.S. Minor Outlying Islands Uganda Ukraine United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Uruguay Uzbekistan Vanuatu Vatican City Venezuela Vietnam Virgin Islands Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe
Email Address:

Do you manage, evaluate, recommend, implement, support or purchase security products, software or services?
YesNo

Please estimate the yearly security budget for your entire organization including all security products and services.
Please select... Over $10 Million $5 Million-$10 Million $1 Million-$4.9 Million $500,000-$999,999 $100,000-$499,999 $50,000-$99,999 $25,000-$49,999 $10,000-$24,999 Less than $10,000 None

What is your role in purchasing IT related products and services? (Check all that apply)
Technical decision maker
Financial decision maker
Recommend/Specify
Evaluate products
Implement Products/Services
Determine Needs
Create Security Strategy
None

By joining SearchSecurity.com you agree to receive email updates from the TechTarget network of sites, including updates on new content, magazine or event notifications, new site launches and market research surveys. Please verify all information and selections above. You may unsubscribe at any time from one or more of the services you have selected by editing your profile or unsubscribing via email.

TechTarget cares about your privacy. Read our Privacy Policy

With this simple method, you can train your users to create very complex passwords that meet all complexity requirements without forcing them to extreme measures to remember a random password or cause them to write it down.

If users still have problems remembering their passwords using this method because they forget their initial sentence, you can suggest that they write down a short phrase that reminds them of the sentence, as long as that phrase does not contain any significant word from the initial sentence. Ideas might include "bright-green eye shadow is strange," "I crashed into an ice-cream cart," or "I love pepperoni and extra cheese."

One final idea on complex passwords. If you have a two or three digit number (less than 255) which is either easy to remember or becomes evident during the sentence to password conversion process, you can use it as a high-order ASCII character instead of just plain old keyboard numerical digits. Just press and hold the ALT key while entering your numerals. If you only have two numerals, enter a zero ("0") first. This will place a high-order ASCII character into your password. It still counts as only a single character even though you will press four digits to create it. The best part about ALT-generated characters in a password is that most brute-force password-cracking tools do not use these characters in a standard attempt to extract passwords. Instead, they usually default to (or are programmatically limited to) the keyboard-based characters.