How to make super-strong, easy to remember passwords

I found this article and its calculator quite the revelation. One thing
that prevents most people from making super-strong passwords is that it
would be hard to remember them. So what if they weren't hard to
remember? To summarize this article, it just says don't worry about
making your password complex, just make it long. Just the length alone
would be enough to defeat the world's fastest supercomputers, in both
brute force attacks and dictionary attacks. What they're saying is don't
make the needle in the haystack harder to find, just make the haystack
bigger. Every additional digit you put into the password, makes it
exponentially harder to guess, to the point where you could even create
an easily memorable password that would take longer than the entire age
of the universe to crack!

GRC's | Password Haystacks: How Well Hidden is Your Needle?
https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm

Yousuf Khan

On Mon, 21 May 2012 14:14:11 -0400, Yousuf Khan
<> wrote:

>I found this article and its calculator quite the revelation. One thing
>that prevents most people from making super-strong passwords is that it
>would be hard to remember them. So what if they weren't hard to
>remember? To summarize this article, it just says don't worry about
>making your password complex, just make it long. Just the length alone
>would be enough to defeat the world's fastest supercomputers, in both
>brute force attacks and dictionary attacks. What they're saying is don't
>make the needle in the haystack harder to find, just make the haystack
>bigger. Every additional digit you put into the password, makes it
>exponentially harder to guess, to the point where you could even create
>an easily memorable password that would take longer than the entire age
>of the universe to crack!
>
>GRC's | Password Haystacks: How Well Hidden is Your Needle?
>https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
>
> Yousuf Khan
>
Some good information, here. The method I have used for a long time is
to pick a favorite song book and a well known song from this book.
Then use the first letters of the main verse, along with the page
number and song number. This is very easy to remember and it think it
would be hard for anyone to crack.

I keep the song book concealed in another room where an intruder would
not likely find it.

Gordon

On Mon, 21 May 2012 14:14:11 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:

> I found this article and its calculator quite the revelation. One thing
> that prevents most people from making super-strong passwords is that it
> would be hard to remember them. So what if they weren't hard to
> remember? To summarize this article, it just says don't worry about
> making your password complex, just make it long. Just the length alone
> would be enough to defeat the world's fastest supercomputers, in both
> brute force attacks and dictionary attacks. What they're saying is don't
> make the needle in the haystack harder to find, just make the haystack
> bigger. Every additional digit you put into the password, makes it
> exponentially harder to guess, to the point where you could even create
> an easily memorable password that would take longer than the entire age
> of the universe to crack!
>
> GRC's | Password Haystacks: How Well Hidden is Your Needle?
> https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
>
> Yousuf Khan

I have always enjoyed Steve Gibson's web site. Lots of ideas and a fun
style. For those not familiar with him, I recommend taking a look
starting at his home page:

https://www.grc.com

I don't necessarily follow all of his ideas :-)

Playing with the page Yousuf points to gives some *very* interesting
numbers.

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

Gene E. Bloch wrote:
> On Mon, 21 May 2012 14:14:11 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:
>
>> I found this article and its calculator quite the revelation. One
>> thing that prevents most people from making super-strong passwords
>> is that it would be hard to remember them. So what if they weren't
>> hard to remember? To summarize this article, it just says don't
>> worry about making your password complex, just make it long. Just
>> the length alone would be enough to defeat the world's fastest
>> supercomputers, in both brute force attacks and dictionary attacks.
>> What they're saying is don't make the needle in the haystack harder
>> to find, just make the haystack bigger. Every additional digit you
>> put into the password, makes it exponentially harder to guess, to
>> the point where you could even create an easily memorable password
>> that would take longer than the entire age of the universe to
>> crack!
>>
>> GRC's | Password Haystacks: How Well Hidden is Your Needle?
>> https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
>>
>> Yousuf Khan
>
> I have always enjoyed Steve Gibson's web site. Lots of ideas and a
> fun style. For those not familiar with him, I recommend taking a look
> starting at his home page:
>
> https://www.grc.com
>
> I don't necessarily follow all of his ideas :-)
>
> Playing with the page Yousuf points to gives some *very* interesting
> numbers.

I like the GRC hosted newsgroups.

--
Crash

"Never say you're sorry. It's a sign of weakness."
~ Leroy Jethro Gibbs ~

On Mon, 21 May 2012 15:52:34 -0400, Dave "Crash" Dummy wrote:

> Gene E. Bloch wrote:
>> On Mon, 21 May 2012 14:14:11 -0400, Yousuf Khan wrote:
>>
>>> I found this article and its calculator quite the revelation. One
>>> thing that prevents most people from making super-strong passwords
>>> is that it would be hard to remember them. So what if they weren't
>>> hard to remember? To summarize this article, it just says don't
>>> worry about making your password complex, just make it long. Just
>>> the length alone would be enough to defeat the world's fastest
>>> supercomputers, in both brute force attacks and dictionary attacks.
>>> What they're saying is don't make the needle in the haystack harder
>>> to find, just make the haystack bigger. Every additional digit you
>>> put into the password, makes it exponentially harder to guess, to
>>> the point where you could even create an easily memorable password
>>> that would take longer than the entire age of the universe to
>>> crack!
>>>
>>> GRC's | Password Haystacks: How Well Hidden is Your Needle?
>>> https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
>>>
>>> Yousuf Khan
>>
>> I have always enjoyed Steve Gibson's web site. Lots of ideas and a
>> fun style. For those not familiar with him, I recommend taking a look
>> starting at his home page:
>>
>> https://www.grc.com
>>
>> I don't necessarily follow all of his ideas :-)
>>
>> Playing with the page Yousuf points to gives some *very* interesting
>> numbers.
>
> I like the GRC hosted newsgroups.

Thanks. That's new to me. Looks like I'll have to do some research...

--
Gene E. Bloch (Stumbling Bloch)

On Mon, 21 May 2012 14:45:50 -0400, Gene E. Bloch wrote
(in article <>):

> Playing with the page Yousuf points to gives some *very* interesting
> numbers.

I agree wholeheartedly. In a very short time I learned a lot about making
passwords that are easy to remember but nearly impossible to crack. I loves
me some learning!

--
Joey from New York
Among those whom I like or admire, I can find*no common denominator,
but among those*whom I love, I can: all of them make me laugh.
* *-- WH Auden

On 21/05/2012 2:14 PM, Yousuf Khan wrote:
> I found this article and its calculator quite the revelation. One thing
> that prevents most people from making super-strong passwords is that it
> would be hard to remember them. So what if they weren't hard to
> remember? To summarize this article, it just says don't worry about
> making your password complex, just make it long. Just the length alone
> would be enough to defeat the world's fastest supercomputers, in both
> brute force attacks and dictionary attacks. What they're saying is don't
> make the needle in the haystack harder to find, just make the haystack
> bigger. Every additional digit you put into the password, makes it
> exponentially harder to guess, to the point where you could even create
> an easily memorable password that would take longer than the entire age
> of the universe to crack!
>
> GRC's | Password Haystacks: How Well Hidden is Your Needle?
> https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm
>
> Yousuf Khan

Some more:

xkcd: Password Strength
http://xkcd.com/936/

Yousuf Khan