How to stop hating passwords

It’s 2016 and no doubt you hate passwords as much as you know how important they are in this era of hacking and online security.  As a web designer, I have lots of passwords to remember.  Even though I use a great password managing app to manage my the bazillions of passwords I still hate the hassles of passwords.

So, how about a simple change that can make your life with passwords so much easier?  Here it is… instead of using something like $th8-7#0(21, use a passphrase you make up like “It’s funny when my dog burps!”  A good passphrase is easier to remember and is harder for hackers to guess.

Here are a few passphrase tips to keep in mind:

1. You can use spaces in most passwords around the web, but not all.  If not, Thenjustwriteyoursentencelikethis! or use dashes like Then-just-write-your-sentence-like-this!
2. The longer the passphrase, the better.  Definitely go more than 12 characters, but more is better. Also, some websites restrict you to 20 characters, so use a small sentence for that. If you use a small phrase, use less frequently used phrases.
3. Don’t use the same password/passphrase on multiple sites.  If a hacker guesses it in one place, they can figure out other places to use it.
4. Longer and less frequently used words are more secure than smaller everyday words.
5. Try to include upper case and lower case letters, a number and a special character when possible.
6. Don’t use personal information like names, birthdates, etc.
7. A capital letter at the front sentence helps, and add some punctuation at the end too.
8. Test your password strength at rumkin.com here
9. When you do not take the time to make a secure password, you are saying “I want to waste countless hours, loads of frustration and possibly spend $100’s sometime in the future. for no good reason.”  There are a ton of people around our world right now employed in real jobs to hack your website or your information.  Don’t cooperate with them.

Want to see the passwords instead of those dots in website forms?

You know how you see all those little bullets in a web form that represent your password?  Wouldn’t you like to see what they say instead?  If you’re using Google Chrome (my favorite browser), you can add an “extension” to it that allows you to see the passwords rather than those dots when you hover over the password field for half a second.  The extension is called “Show Password” and here’s a link to it.  If you’re using another browser, it’s likely there’s an extension or add-on that gives you the same solution.