Master Your Passwords

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GUIDE VIDEO: Join me as we work on this Game Challenge together.

Simple Setup for Mastering Passwords

Before we talk about passwords, let’s talk about security. Keeping your important things secure is the whole point of passwords. Every password can be stolen or guessed, so no matter how sophisticated your password strategy is, it is still flawed. The best thing you can do to keep your accounts safe is to set up 2-factor authentication on your important accounts. Start with your email, social media and banking accounts.

Now let’s choose a password choosing strategy. Knowing what your password “should” be for your online accounts is the first step for successful password management. You have several options.

• Most secure: Letting a password manager choose and manage your passwords
• Medium secure: Using a password pattern
• Least secure: using the same password for everything

Let’s setting up a password pattern

This pattern system is a simple system for creating better passwords. Passwords are still vulnerable to guessing and stealing, but the pattern is better than many strategies currently in place.

Print out the Password WORKSHEET and let’s get this done.

1. Choose a Word between 4 – 6 letters and capitalize the first letter.
2. Choose a Number between 4 – 6 digits.
3. Choose Special Character, # , ? , & , ! , –  tend to work best.
4. Decide on a SiteID for how you will identify specific online accounts.
5. Choose the order of the elements for your password pattern.

These elements can also be upleveled for security.

• Instead of a Word you can choose a Sentence.
• You can add special characters between each element.
• You can spell the online account backwards.
• Mix it up and make it your own.

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Deeper work and Strategy for this Game Challenge

One of the most challenging things about dealing with your online tools is how to master your password.

On the surface, it seems like “remembering” your password is the biggest challenge. It is not.

The real challenge around passwords is having a consistent and reliable method for choosing your password. The solution is to have a system in place for making quick decisions about what password you will use for a particular online tool. With this system, you will be able to look at any tool and know immediately what the password should be, even if you have never before used the online tool.

This is where the magic happens. When you use a password strategy like this one you are following the major recommended password guidelines every time.

1. Between 12-15 digits long – Stringing together the word, site3, number and character will automatically give you a long enough password.
2. With at least 1 capital letter, 1 lower case letter and number
3. least 1 special character (# , $ , ? , ! , -)
4. Don’t have the same password for everything. The name of the website you are trying to log into (Site ID) can be used to create a unique password for that site, different from all your other passwords, but still memorable.

Examples of how the password pattern strategy will work:

Let’s say you are creating or resetting your passwords for your GOOgle account and your MICrosoft account and you decided to capitalize the first 3 letters of the brand for your Site ID and your special word is Happy and your special number is 5309 and your special character is $.

Let’s say you chose this Password Pattern: Word + siteID + numbers + character Your passwords would be…

OR

Let’s say you chose this Password Pattern: numbers + Word + character + site3 Your passwords would be…

Now any time you come across a new account or you are not sure of the password for an old account, you can use your pattern to establish a password that is secure and you will be able to easily remember.

Things to consider about passwords

There is no such thing as the BEST password system. You will always find password strategies that are more secure or easier than whatever system you are using. The goal is to establish a system that you can use and you will use.

The biggest thing you can do to secure your accounts is to turn on 2-factor authentication.

I recommend the password pattern because it is an easy way to step it up a level. Its use improves password security dramatically over the standard most common way of implementing passwords. i.e. using that same password for everything.

Evaluate your current passwords and step it up a level. Here are some examples:

• THE MOST SECURE: jhavo#$6h89cy743]49iekLK%^TIOL (and different for every account you have)
• HIGH SECURITY: A*Long!1Sentance%5That?Only!1You#3Know
• MEDIUM SECURITY: Password Pattern – see the Mastering your Passwords game challenge
• LOW SECURITY: 1234Password (the same for every account)
• THE LEAST SECURE: password or 1234 (the same for every account)

The Advanced Option for Remembering your Passwords

If you have more than 8-10 websites that require a login and password, then you probably could use an extra layer of password management.  I strongly urge you to use a reputable password management system like 1password, Dashlane, and Roboform, to name a few.

Resources associated with this Game Challenge:

WORKSHEET: Create Your Password Pattern

BLOG POST: 5 Steps to Create a Strong Password (that you will actually remember)

Nicole Lux-Ritchie – Founder of Luxcentric

Nicole’s mission is to help people gain the digital office skills they need to on their missions. The focus of Luxcentric is on training, troubleshooting, implementing, and coaching around the topics of EMAIL – FILES – CALENDARS – CONTACTS