Friday, March 20, 2009

Passwords

I have been pondering about all the various websites I use that require a username and password - banking, credit cards, blogs, facebook, homeschool sites, webkinz, etc.

Do I really need a different username and password for each site? I can see the importance for a different password for my financial sites...but the others?

So I'm working on a new password: something I can remember, that's easy to type, with at least 6 letters and numbers. I need a word that I like that can easily trade out a "O" for the number 0 or an "I" for the number 1... 5 could work for an "S", 3 for an "E"....hum... let's look at some options:

J3nn1f3r
P3t3rs3n
5l33py
c0ff33
laundry
eat1n9
fac3b00k
drp3pp3r

Well, in writing this little article, I figured one out... but I can't tell ya. You should NEVER, EVER, EVER give your password out. what3v3r...

2 comments:

Darren Petersen said...

Counterpoint: ( pushing glasses up )

drp3pp3r only really has 4 characters in it. Count them. Guessing that password

Not as secure as, for example, d13tp3ps1. which has 6 characters, or 1c3dT3a, which has 7.

if you still want to go with your favorite, you can spell DrPepper with 7, drP3ppeR

All this is related to strong passwords and something called 'bit strength', which is related to the number of tries an attacker would make before the password breaks. If you're interested more, read on at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_strength

Heidi said...

H1 J3nn,

1 jusT g0t caught up 0n y0ur blog. I was laugh1ng 0ut 10ud, especially about your p&nts. Did you know that Will always rips his clothing as soon as it gets a tear or weak spot? It really disturbs me for some reason. And here I learn that you did it t00....

love you!