August Adventures - Protect Yourself

Having a secure password is very important in this day and age.  Most times I try to pick a password that is relevant to whatever site I am on to make it easier for me to remember.  I therefore have a ton of different passwords and I have to keep them written down so I won't forget which one goes where.

Thanks to my friend, John, at The Sound of One Hand Typing, who is a wealth of interesting tidbits of all kinds and if you are not following him you should, I was directed to a website that will generate random pass phrases.  You can read John's post about it here.

We've all seen those movies where the hero starts the computer search for the password that will disarm the bomb or open the safe or whatever and it always manages to find the right code in just the nick of time.  Of course, Sherlock Holmes was always able to crack the cipher as well.

The website is called Use a passphrase and it will generate passphrases for you and you can plug your current passwords into it and it will tell you how long it could take someone/a computer to figure out your code.

I knew that phrases were better than just words and I have used the first letter of each word of a phrase sometimes but just for the heck of it I plugged in some of the passwords I use on a regular basis.

I was unhappy with the speed in which someone could crack the password I use on our bank account (608 milliseconds!) so that is one I changed right away.  The new one I picked should take 372 centuries for someone to get so I think our money is safe for a while.  Plus, even though it is a lot safer than then one I was using, it is still something that will be easy for me to remember.

I'll be checking my other passwords as well and you might want to give it a try to see how long it could take someone to get into your business.  Thanks, John, for the tip!