3 Simple Tips for Remembering Strong Passwords

Nobody likes passwords. Eventually they will be replaced by a new technology, maybe a passkey, maybe something that hasn't been invented yet. But most of us still use passwords every day, dozens or even hundreds of them, and remembering them all is impossible.

If you use an easy password like your birthday or your dog's name, hackers can guess it in a flash. Even if you rack your brains to remember a strong random password like 4Y3s}#Rhkg7Y;A'5, it's not a good idea to use it on multiple sites because a breach at one service could expose all of your other services.

The only (and currently the best) solution is to rely on a password manager . With the help of such a utility, using a different strong password for each website is easy. The following article will show you how to do it!

Passwords that are difficult to guess can be difficult to remember.

A complete, streamlined password manager that works across all your devices, be it desktop, laptop, smartphone, or tablet. It generates unguessable passwords like Z~/NQ"e5=|OO=qf9 , remembers them for you, and automatically uses those saved passwords to log into your secure sites.

But there’s a downside to this plan. Almost every password manager relies on a master password to lock down all those individual passwords. The master password has to be uncrackable, because anyone with access to it can unlock all your secure sites. But it also has to be memorable, unlike the gibberish of random password generators. If you forget your master password, no one can help you. On the plus side, this also means a rogue employee can’t hack into your password vault, and the NSA can’t force a company to hand over your data.

Let’s say you’ve done everything right when it comes to security. You’ve installed antivirus software or a security suite. A virtual private network, or VPN, encrypts your internet traffic in protective encryption. And you’ve used a password manager to handle your myriad passwords. You still have to remember a super-secure master password to lock down that password manager. Here are some tips for choosing a password that’s both memorable and impossible to guess.

1. Create a password related to poetry

Everyone has a favorite poem or song that they will never forget. It could be a line from Shakespeare, a Taylor Swift tune, or something ironic from the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Whatever the stanza or line, you can turn it into a password. Here's how.

Start by writing out the first letter of each syllable. Use capital letters for stressed syllables and leave any punctuation intact. For example, with this line from Romeo and Juliet: "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks?" from that, you would have bS,wLtYdWdB? . You could add A2S2 for Act 2, Scene 2 if it's something you'll never forget, or 1597 for the year the play was published.

If the passage has no rhythm, simply take the first letter of each word, using existing punctuation and capitalization. Using the quote "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken. - Oscar Wilde" , you could create the password By;eeiat.-OW. Adding a memorable number would round the password off, perhaps 1854 (his birthday) or 1900 (his death).

Of course, your poetry-related password will be completely different from these examples. You will start with your own meaningful song or quote and turn it into a unique password that no one else can guess.

2. Turn your password into an easy-to-miss phrase

Password experts always recommend that you include all four types of characters: Uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and punctuation. The reason is that by expanding the character pool, you significantly increase the time it takes to crack a password. Longer lengths also make it harder to crack, and one way to achieve a long, memorable password is to use a passphrase.

The clever, witty webcomic XKCD takes aim at quirky password schemes, suggesting starting with a common word, replacing some of the letters with look-alike numbers, and then adding in a few extra characters. For example, Tr0ub4dor&3, Tr0ub4dor3&? or maybe Tr0m30ne&3?. A passphrase like this is significantly harder to crack due to its length, but also much easier to remember.

Not all password managers allow spaces in your master password. No problem! Just choose a character like a hyphen or an equal sign to separate the words. If you have trouble coming up with unrelated words for your passphrase, there are plenty of online passphrase generators, like CorrectHorseBatteryStaple.net. If you're worried about using a passphrase generated by someone else's algorithm, you can create multiple passphrases and cut off one word from each.

3. Make your password longer

Respected computer expert Steve Gibson suggests that the secret to a long, strong password is to add elements to it. Each additional character makes it that much harder to crack.

Gibson's website offers a Search Space Calculator that analyzes every password you enter based on the types of characters used and their length. The calculator estimates how long it would take to brute-force a given password. Note that this is not a measure of password strength, but rather a measure of cracking time.

Try adding something like vcvcvcvc or 3 characters like lkjlkjlkjlkj to your password. Gibson's calculator says it would take over 45 years to crack bS,wLtYdWdB? (the Romeo and Juliet password in the previous example). Adding vcvcvcvc would increase the time to over a trillion centuries.

Bonus Tip: Use Multi-Factor Authentication

By now, you’ve probably come up with a long but perfectly memorable master password. There’s just one caveat: Someone with a good memory who happens to see you typing it could use it to open your password vault. More likely, a hacker using a data-stealing Trojan could get the password. So what?

The solution is to reinforce your master password with another type of authentication. Multi-factor authentication typically involves at least two of three types: Something you know (like a password), something you have (like a smartphone app), and your biometrics (like a fingerprint).

Most password managers allow you to use an authenticator app for added security. Now, a password thief can't get into your vault with just your password. Without the code from the authenticator app, there's no way to access those precious account passwords.

After investing in a password manager and converting all of your logins to strong, unique passwords, the only password you still have to remember is the password that opens the password manager itself. That master password unlocks everything else, so you really need to take the time to come up with a master password that you can easily remember but that others can’t guess or crack.

Create a password based on a poem, song, or famous quote. Or create a passphrase, linking unrelated words to a memorable image or story. Then add some easy-to-type padding. You'll have a master password that's both memorable and uncrackable.