Creating strong passwords

Creating strong passwords is easy. Remembering them without writing them down is the hard part. Here is a tip on creating strong passwords that you can then easily reconstruct or remember.

1. Choose a phrase you'll remember such as "life wasn't meant to be easy".
2. Choose a date you will remember in this example we will use 20/01/09
3. Interlace the date you'll remember with the first letters in the phrase:" L2i0f0e1w0a9"
4. You can add another level of security by adding punctuation, such as the inverted comma from wasn't
5. Take it further and modify the password for each site or service you use by inserting the first two letters of the sites name immediately before the punctuation. so for online banking at ANZ, you'd use:L2i0f0e1w0a9an

Now that's a very scary looking password and its certainly not easy to remember, but it's very easily reconstructed. Just make sure you never reveal your phrase and date choice to anyone else.

Easy Passwords

Dealing with a password like L2i0f0e1w0a9an looks and feels like to much hassel for you. Why not take a look at RoboForm and let it take care of the passwords for you?

RoboForm contains a password generator for creating very strong passwords and it can store all of your passwords saftley.All you'll need to do is remember a single master password. RoboForm goes even further by remembering information you have typed into Web forms and automatically fills in the forms on further visits. You can store information such as bank and credit account numbers in RoboForm and let it automatically fill fields for online commerce sites. All this for free if you don't want to store more then ten passwords.

RoboForm was named PC Magazine Editor's Choice, and CNET Download.com's Software of the Year. RoboForm:

• Memorizes your passwords and Logs You In automatically.
• Fills long registration and checkout forms with one click.
• Encrypts your passwords to achieve complete security.
• Generates random passwords that hackers cannot guess.
• Backs up your passwords, Copies them between computers.
• Synchronizes passwords between computers using GoodSync.
• Searches for keywords in your passwords, notes and Internet.
• Portable: RoboForm2Go RF runs from USB key, no install needed.
• PDA-friendly: sync your passwords to Pocket PC and Palm.
• Neutral: works with Internet Explorer, AOL/MSN, Firefox.
• IE 7 and Vista: are now supported.