Comments on: Don’t tell us your password: the top ten

By: Emilee

Emilee — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:11:26 +0000

124356? Amazing! that’s the combonation for my luggage!

By: Teresa

Teresa — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 22:47:33 +0000

One of the most sucessful way of creating paswords is to pick a random word from a different language, misspell it, and shove two numbers in somewhere. Hasn’t failed me yet :)

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:51:58 +0000

I’m one of those naughty ones that have used almost the same type of password for years. Granted, it’s a mix of my friends names back when I was in high school, but still. I’ll change one or two things with it once or twice a year, more if I’m signing up for something big. It’s not like I have much to protect anyway, since I’m in college.

My ex boyfriend (the first one) is worse. He told me his password years ago, and he hasn’t modified it at all. I could type it here right now and everyone could get into his email, myspace, bank info, etc. I won’t, though, because I’m not that vindictive. The only one of his that’s different is the one for his yahoo account and that’s because, when he signed up for yahoo, it made the password for you. Amazingly, with his lack of creativity usually, he always remembers it.

By: cj

cj — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:27:20 +0000

One of the passwords I used for a bunch of stupid sites back in high school is on that list. I know there was a phase I went through where I just wanted to see how many email accounts one person could have. It made me wonder how much of it was my fault that the word showed up?

Last night I couldn’t even view my cable bill because I don’t know the password any more . . .

By: Jacy Blitz

Jacy Blitz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:09:10 +0000

I have a “pool” of thematically-related passwords that I use for most sites and applications, and two that I use for only very secure sites. This means that if I forget my password for a particular site, I have a few options I can try out. The downside is that I often use the same password for different sites, but only for ones that don’t involve personal or financial information. I suppose if someone discovered my very esoteric interests they might be able to figure out some of my passwords, but they would have to know me very well first.

By: Florida

Florida — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:58:31 +0000

My use of unique, creative, and “strong” passwords causes me to be entirely incapable of remembering why I thought I would be able to remember my unique, creative, and stong password.

Consequently, access to most of my secure sites come from clicking on “Did you forget the Password?” link and answering my “security question”

By: Kristi

Kristi — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:50:40 +0000

I use band names and band members, movie names, characters, etc….but I use the number keys as letters (2=@, 3=E, 0=o)

I have to change mine at work monthly, the one I just changed was b32tl3s (beatles)

By: Joe

Joe — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:24:44 +0000

Lately i’ve been picking quotes or sentences from books, using the first characters of each word. For example, “Catch-22: It was love at first site.” – the password would be “C-22Iwla1sts.” That contains everything: 2 capital letters, 2 punctuation marks, 3 numbers, but it’s very easy to remember.

Or this classic, which someone can probably guess: “Iwtbot,iwtwot”

By: Suzy

Suzy — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:15:52 +0000

Makes me think of Spaceballs.

“12345? That’s the stupidest combination I’ve ever heard of in my life! That’s the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!”

By: Liz E. Liz

Liz E. Liz — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:58:41 +0000

I like to pick long words that I think are fun to say (or type)… like “pontification” for example. It’s long enough to use, to odd to be easily guessed, and I can type it quickly. If I need to use a combo of numbers and letters, I tend to pick two random short words and stick a number I like at the end, like “hotnugget007″.

I actually have a different password for every single account I have, all random, but I’ve never forgotten a single one. Go figure.

Tip: It is a good idea to change your passwords every now and then.