[thelist] changing password design

Chris W. Parker cparker at swatgear.com
Fri Sep 12 12:07:49 CDT 2003


Simon Willison <mailto:cs1spw at bath.ac.uk>
    on Friday, September 12, 2003 3:26 AM said:

> I frequently curse systems that require me to thnk up a
> password that is "at least 7 characters long, including at least one
> upper case character, one lower case character and one digit" because
> they prevent me from using one of my standard 4 or 5 passwords that I
> have already commited to memory.

May I suggest you throw one of those passwords away and replace it with
a much more complicated password? That way at least one of your 4 or 5
passwords will fit the bill.

> "You can't memorize good enough passwords any more, so don't bother."

That's not true!

I generally remember my passwords (as do most people I'm sure) through
muscle memory.

One thing I think is a good idea (but maybe it's not) is to use code as
your password

while($ctr<100);
return ($x*$x)+$digits;
z=0;z<20;z++

etc.

That usually satisfies three of the 4 categories (a, A, 1, !).


Thanks for all the ideas so far guys.
Chris.


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