You know what I'm tired of? I'm tired of Facebook and Google asking for my phone number all the time. Do you ever get the feeling that these two entities are the creepy guy at the bar who won't stop asking for your number?
They'll text my phone if "The Gods Are Bored" is ever hacked. Like, if someone steals my password.
A likely story. Google and Facebook just want my phone number so they can spy on me.
It's not necessary to give Google your telephone number! No one can hack anything if you come up with a creative password.
Awhile back, don't know how long, I read an article, don't know where (remember, this is a blog) that said most people just use "1234" as their password. Or their birth date. And then they wonder why they get hacked!
If you like numbers, and you're a Pagan reading this, did you ever think about using 1031 or 0202 as a password? Need a four-digit code for your debit card? How about the year you graduated from high school? (After, of course, removing all that stupid "Class of ..." crap from your home and car.)
Now we get into the thorny thicket of passwords for email and Facebook accounts. You definitely want these to be tricky. Steer clear of the name of your favorite pet or your home town. Chances are you'll lose them both and then be missing them every time you type. For years I used the name of a deceased pet frog as a password, and every time I typed it I thought of the lil guy.
Need a good password? Type out what you'd really like to be doing, all mushed together like cranberries and turkey!
skinnydipinthecreek
69withdoctorwho
isingthebodyelectric
You get the idea.
Recently I had to give a new password to a doctor's office that will now conduct its business online. First I hated the whole idea of that, and then they had all kinds of arcane rules for the freakin password. It had to have a capital letter, a number, and a symbol! So guess what? I created the account, tried three times to get an acceptable password, got it on the third try, and forgot it two minutes later. I've since gotten several emails from that doctor's office. Can't answer them. Can't remember the password. Can't remember it because I was so pissed that they wanted one that I refused to write it down.
If you ask me, there's a vowel too many in "password."
Free advice? Don't hand out your phone number to strangers. And if you must devise an assword, conjure up a really great one and use it with reckless abandon.
canthackmecuzudontnome0202
Anne Johnson
6 comments:
for a while I tried to use the same password for everything, but then all those "you have to have one of these and one of those" things made that impossible. So I have three pages of passwords written down.
and the pin numbers! how are you supposed to memorize a different number for each card? Luckily, I still have the account I had when they invented pin numbers and I memorized that first, random, number. I recently tried to use another card and tried several numbers before it came to me what it was. What a pain. I hope they come up with something better in the future. (I don't have fingerprints anymore -- occupational hazard I'm told by the fingerprinting people.)
Ooh I like that second password but it has to be #11.
As always:
http://xkcd.com/936/
your suggestion of "make it a phrase" is what us IT people suggest. If symbols and such are needed, just replace a lett3r with a nu#ber or something. :D
As always:
http://xkcd.com/936/
using a phrase, as you suggested, is what us IT folks actually suggest.(which doctor? 10? LOL)
if you need letters and numb3rs, just replace s0me with $ymbols anyway.
Pick a phrase you can remember. Like
"To be or not to be; that is the question." (Don't use that phrase. and if could be a bit longer....)
Then create a password...
2b0n2bt1t?
That password is harder to crack than most.
Stay away from the obvious things...
Gettysburg. Constitution. Lord's Prayer. Pick a favorite piece of poetry (you did have to read poetry in high school, remember?) or line from a movie (Not anything that everyone knows.) Or just a phrase...
Any password that contains dictionary words, even if it doesn't start with one, is much easier to crack than one that doesn't. Though nothing is immune, given enough time. Longer is better.
I'd use davidtennantisgorgeous, but anyone who knows me would guess it right off. Oh, well....
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