How to choose a good password


20 K 4.1/5 (35 reviews)
Grade this page:
Last modified on: March 29th 2013
For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend
How to choose a good password

password

These days more and more websites ask you to create a user account, so that you can be identified before being allowed to access some service or other.

To create an account you need to choose a user identity. This is simple, as your email address is used in most cases (ann.other@gmail.com, for example). Then you will need a password.

Ah! The password: the access key to so many things in your life: your computer, tablet (maybe), inbox, profile on Facebook or other social media, all the websites – commercial or otherwise – where you have a user account (oh yes, cuisine-ez.com is one of them).

The problem with this password is that it needs to be difficult for a hacker to find when attacking one of your access points, but simple enough for you to remember easily.

You should be aware that one of the so-called "brute force" methods hackers use consists of using another computer to try thousands, even millions of words based on dictionaries (all the words in many different languages, all first names, all possible numbers, etc.). So obviously, you should forget any password which is a word or name, like “Jeremy” , or “11021990” . They will only take a couple of minutes to crack.

While we're on the subject, here are the top 10 worst passwords of 2012:

password



Let's look at what makes a good password:
  1. Meaningless when read, not a recognisable word or number
  2. Made up of lower and upper case letters along with numbers and, if possible, unusual characters (*, !, ?, etc.)
  3. At least 5 characters long, but 8 is better
  4. Known to you alone: a password is like a toothbrush – not for lending to others


So, how do we find this rare beast? Well, you can come up with a string of random characters, such as
1dH2$6up – very effective, but very hard to remember!

There is a much better solution: you will need to think of a phase, a fairly long one, that means something to you (the title of a film, book, poem, proverb, saying, etc.). Whatever it is, it needs to be familiar enough to come back to you quite naturally.

Let's use as an example the film "Star Wars Episode Five: The Empire Strikes Back". To create your password, use the first letter of each word, which will give you "sweftesb". This is difficult to guess and you can recite the title to yourself in your head as you type each letter.

That's really not bad at all, but we can improve it by adding in a few refinements: replace the "s" of "star" with "*" and replace the "f" of "five" with "5", which gives you "*we5tesb".

And Bob's your uncle! This system provides you with a password that is very difficult for a hacker to find, but which you can have at your fingertips in a matter of seconds.

Of course, you should never, ever, write it down anywhere afterwards, that negates the whole point…

password


If you need a reminder, just write down "empire strikes back" somewhere. That should be enough to jog your memory.




Lasts posts
Oven height
Oven height
When we put a dish or cake in the oven, we naturally tend to put it on the middle shelf, and that's what we usually do. But in some cases, this position and height can be a little tricky, so let's find out why.
October 8th 20251,1555
The importance of sieving
The importance of sieving
In recipes that use a fine powder (flour, powdered sugar, etc.), you'll often see the advice to sift before using it. To sift is to pass the powder in question through a sieve (a very fine strainer) before incorporating it into your recipe. It's often advice, but is it really useful?
September 3rd 20256,7433
The grease spray
The grease spray
As soon as you have something in a recipe that sticks to the mold, the question always arises as to how difficult it is to remove from the mold. There's nothing more frustrating than breaking your cake when unmolding it, because part of it has stuck in the mold. The classic way to avoid this is...
August 26th 20256,1765
Cake moulds
Cake moulds
When we make a cake, or a cake of the same rectangular shape, we usually take out our usual mould and tell ourselves that the recipe is anyway "for a cake", but is it really that simple?
August 25th 20256,2905
Thinning out herbs
Thinning out herbs
If you need to add a long-stemmed herb (tarragon, mint, verbena, thyme, etc.) to a recipe, you'll probably only need the leaves and not the stem, so you'll need to remove the leaves. Leaf removal means keeping only the beautiful leaves, and eliminating the ugly stems and leaves, but how do you do...
August 8th 20254,4375

Other pages you may also like
Should I believe my oven?
Should I believe my oven?
Can you really trust your oven? This is an important question as we are always tempted to take the temperature indicated as gospel truth and, unfortunately, this is rarely very precise. .
July 4th 201132 K4.6
Steam for baking bread
Steam for baking bread
What does steam have to do with bread-making? This is not only a bakers' secret, it is something you might not think of at all: if you make bread and bake it like a cake, you will end up with bread, but pale and with a thick, hard crust – a long way from the golden-brown crusty loaf you had in...
June 16th 2021146 K4.5
Maillard reactions
Maillard reactions
This subject cropped up recently in a discussion with my three charming nieces; do you know what Maillard reactions are? With a name like that, they could well be some principle in mechanics, but in fact the term applies to something much closer to all of us: it's what gives food more flavour...
January 28th 201537 K4
Too much sweet and savoury
Too much sweet and savoury
There is a food trend which is creeping in everywhere in France right now: mixing sweet with savoury. In some restaurants, it is becoming difficult to order a classic dish, like “roast veal” for instance, without being served fruits in the garnish or honey/conserves/syrup in the sauce or cooked...
November 3rd 201127 K4.5
Children and vegetables
Children and vegetables
This is an attempt to address the question that all parents and grandparents, maybe you included, face so often: how can we get children to like vegetables? And at the same time, we might get away from the familiar, day-in, day-out round of pasta, chips, toast.. Well, I can hear you say, it's...
March 9th 201715 K5
Post a comment or question
Posted by:
I am not a leaving thing

Follow this page
If you are interested in this page, you can "follow" it, by entering your email address here. You will then receive a notification immediately each time the page is modified or a new comment is added. Please note that you will need to confirm this following.
I am not a leaving thing
Note: We'll never share your e-mail address with anyone else.
Alternatively: you can subscribe to the mailing list of cooling-ez.com , you will receive a e-mail for each new recipe published on the site.

Back to top of page