Many people have been taught the basics of how not to create a password such as using; password, 1234, name, user etc etc. But while the basics is a good starting point you actually have to go a step further to create one that is unbreakable. By unbreakable we mean that a computer program would need to take millions of years to de code. The way computers decode passwords is by using every character in every combination possible until it reaches one that works. This method is know as a brute force attempt.

Some programs or hosts have a built in password generator which will compose a password consisting of 8-12 digits or random upper case, lower case, numbers and characters. While this might be great its important to understand what makes a brute force attack unbreakable – password length. That’s right, all the cryptic symbols, characters, numbers and other random element will still be cycled through the program in a brute force attack. So while using all numbers might seem difficult to you a human, it is merely another character to cycle through and with a small length password that becomes quite easy.

These days many programs or hosts (host meaning a website that requires you to log in) require a password to be a minimum of 6 character, with 1 upper case, 1 lower case and 1 number. We can use that info to create the perfect password that is both easy to remember, and fit the criteria.

Now as I mentioned its the length of character that make a password hard to beat in a brute force attack. So the key is to make it very long. But how?

A simple way to do this is by thinking of 4 random words that rhyme with 4 numbers. The numbers can be ones that mean something or have a sequence.

1,2,3,4

1- run

2- shoe

3- tree

4-store

Now, lets make the first letter of each word a capital and we have this

1Run2Shoe3Tree4Store

you can do that with 2,4,6,8 or a birthday 1,2,9,2 and so on and so on

By using this method with a password length as shown it would take a computer doing a brute force attack over a billion years to crack. I think that would qualify as very safe. Try it for your next password.