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- You can enter non-English characters as part of your password. If you speak a different language, choose one English word and one in another language.
- Or even write an English word out in Japanese characters, for example.
- Use Diceware to choose your words instead of you.
- Or let Wise Owl Legal generate a passphrase and you can modify it.
- Passwords can be as long as you want. So feel free to make a 20 or 30 letter long passphrase.
- Include spaces between words.
- Deliberately misspell words.
- Don't tell the truth. Instead of choosing your pet's name, choose a headline from page 24 of today's newspaper. And then change the headline.
- Don't be afraid to write it down. Making something longer and more complex that you write down is better than simple and memorised (and of course, long and memorised is better again!). Just keep your written copy secure (eg: in your wallet).
- Read some more tips by the makers of OnePass.
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Any IT literate person can learn how to crack passwords, and do a decent job of it in one working day. Professional crackers will find up to 90% of passwords in the same time. They even hold annual competitions to see who can crack the most passwords. They use off-the-shelf hardware, available for a few thousand dollars to attempt billions (trillions for those with deep pockets) of different passwords every second. Even the computer on your desk can check millions of potential passwords each second.
The Wise Owl Legal Password Blacklist was made using the same tools and techniques as real crackers to do. We at Wise Owl Legal have had no prior experience cracking passwords, yet obtained millions of real user's passwords from publicly available leaks.
Don't for a moment think your password is good enough if you've thought it up yourself. Professional crackers will find passwords like qeadzcwrsfxv1331, momof3g8kids and :LOL1313le within 24 hours. If you can think up some tricky scheme to make a password, they'll figure it out - given enough time. And they have much more time than you do; you spend a few minutes by yourself to think a password up. Crackers can spend hours, days or even weeks of time using sophisticated hardware and software programs in a competitive community to find your password.
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