Lost passwords

rediscover dreams
Lost treasures or good riddance
-forgotten passwords
are just a ruse to prevent
trespassers, curious cats

Below are a few guidelines I provide in my financial literacy sessions about using safe passwords.

Complex passwords are safe, yet challenging to remember.

Most common passwords are

Others may contain a combination of names and important dates

System-generated passwords may look something like this.

$p,12#mjkq2yy&khwng

Change passwords every 60 days
Password should have an upper case letter, a lower case letter, a special character and a number.
Password should not have certain characters //
Password should not be the same as last 3 passwords

A common trick known to hackers, but it might help some.

Write alphabets from A to Z

Allocate numbers from 1 to 26 to each alphabet. Now rewrite names or dates with this code.

2. VOWEL TRICK

You normally skip vowels in a word to create abbreviations.

Grt Gr8

Use this in large sentences.

Allocate a number to each vowel. The number can be in two digits or more.

3. LARGE SENTENCES

Write a large sentence that only makes sense to you. (It can be a line from your favourite song)

Example-

THERE ARE NO SHORTCUTS TO SUCCESS OTHER THAN SMART WORK AND GRABBING OPPORTUNITIES.

In how many ways can you rewrite this?

TANSTSOTSWAGO

EESOSRNTKDGY

Allocate numbers to some alphabets in between.
Insert special characters after the third or fourth alphabet, or whatever appeals to you.

4. THE KEYBOARD TRICK

Substitute an alphabet with the corresponding number in the top row or vice versa.

REENA becomes 53361.

5. COMBINATIONS

Combine different words which hold some meaning for you.

Now, combine these in different ways with associated numbers and characters

OTHER TIPS

Do not use the same email address and password combination to create accounts on other platforms.
Do not save card details on shopping sites.
Do not save passwords for easy logins.
Record security questions and answers somewhere to avoid getting locked out of your accounts.