Friday Donut tip: generate unique, memorable passwords for any website

June 29, 2012 by Imanuel Votteler

Electric fence

Passwords and website security breaches seem to be in the news constantly. Yet people still insist that passwords are generally a nuisance, and would rather have simple ones or use the same one for every website.

But that's risky. Having just one of those passwords revealed could potentially allow an attacker to access many of your other online accounts.

One really simple way to ensure you have a unique password is to use the name of the website in the password itself.

Come up with a password (or better yet, a passphrase) that you will remember. For example:

Ilikepineapples

That will be the base for your other passwords. For your Google account, you would use the password:

IlikepineapplesGoog

For your YouTube account you would use:

IlikepineapplesYout

Easy! You can obviously make the passwords as complex as you like, using numbers, symbols and both upper and lowercase letters.

Bonus tip:

While browsing through the settings for my Gmail account, I spotted two-step verification. This is an excellent way to secure your Google account using your mobile.

Every time you sign in on a new device, Google will call or text you a code which you must enter on the website. You won’t have to do this again for 30 days, unless you select otherwise.

This way you’ll also know if anyone is trying to break into your Google account, as you will get an unexpected automated phone call from the big G.

NB: I would recommend including numbers, symbols and capitals in your password. I didn't here for simplicity.

Courtesy navigation

Search

Friday Donut tip: generate unique, memorable passwords for any website