Better (Easier) Passwords

We access secure data from our laptops in classrooms, kitchens, cars.. almost anywhere. The places we don’t take our laptops, many of us take our internet enabled phones and access data from these smart devices. In an era of unprecedented access to important data, it is very important for us to maintain strong passwords. Passwords are the keys to your data, and in many cases we are sharing that data. If you have a poor password – we all have a poor password.

Fortunately creating a great password is not as difficult as you may fear. In fact it may be much easier!

The information below is intended to help you create a password which both follows the LPS password requirements and will be easy for you to use.

About your (new) LPS password

You cannot reuse an LPS password.

LPS passwords are required to be between 8-20 characters in length and contain at least 3 of these 4 attributes:

An Upper Case Letter
A Lower Case Letter
A Number
A Special Character ! @ $ % ^ & * ? (note: special characters may be difficult to use at MFD)

LPS passwords may NOT contain

any 3 letter (or longer) portion of the user’s display name (Jane Doe) or username (jdoe)
special characters not listed above

This set of rules may sound daunting, but using the strategies below you should be able to construct a pretty painless (and possibly fun) one to remember.

How strong is it?

Use this online tool to test the strength of your password ideas.

http://www.passwordmeter.com/

Changing Passwords… and Habits

Now that you have chosen the PERFECT password, there are a few things to remember:

Never share your password with ANYONE. Your job depends upon it! (LPS School Board Policies 5340 & 6441)
Do not write it down. Seriously, don’t do it. If you can’t remember it without writing it down you’ve chosen a password that is too hard.
Do not recycle your passwords from site to site. If your password is compromised in one site, it is now compromised on EVERY site. Would you use the same key for your house, car, school, shed, bank, hospital, etc.?
Be conscious of who is watching you type it.
Secure your devices (laptop, smart phones, tablets) with lock screens or screensaver passwords.
As the old saying goes… Passwords are like underwear:
- Change them often
- Don’t share them with friends
- Keep them mysterious
- The longer the better
- Don’t leave them lying around

Now… Choosing a GREAT password!

A great password is EASY for you to remember, but HARD for a computer to figure out.

Here are a number of different creative ways to come up with a password that is robust enough to be secure AND personal enough to be easy to remember. One of these strategies is bound to spark an idea for your next great password.

Before you start, check out the list of things you should NEVER use as your password towards the bottom of this page.

Lifestyle

You are going to be typing this password a few times a day, right? Use that as an opportunity. Create a password that reminds you of something in your life that you might want to improve upon. Examples:

```
64water1day! (64 ounces of water a day)
```

steps&stairs2000 (take the stairs and walk 2000 steps a day)

1Apple0choc (eat an apple a day, less chocolate)

bPresent4u (Respect people by being “present” in the moment with them)

4pos^neg1 (It takes 4 positive statements to overcome 1 negative one)

6smile2day! (Reminder to smile during all 6 class periods today.)

Mnemonics

Mnemonics are often employed to translate an easy to remember phrase to a hard to hack password. This might be a phrase you think of often, or the lyrics to a song or poem you appreciate. Examples:

Iwthyh63 (I want to hold your hand - Beatles 1963)

mss&BH71 (Mud Slide Slim and the Blue Horizon - James Taylor 1971)

Gjw2hf84 (Girls Just Want to Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper 1984)

iwb@PHXAZ (I was born in Phoenix, Arizona)

The OLD You

Things you were fond of in the past, but are not obviously tied to you as an adult can be combined to make a good password. Maybe a place you loved, or a specific car, an attraction from a vacation, or a favorite restaurant? Examples:

pbMinn10 (I visited Paul Bunyan in Minnesota when I was 10)

1000GJsc (I could eat 1000 of my Grandma Jones’ sugar cookies)

4Hhog74! (I showed a 4-H Blue Ribbon Hog in 1974)

C&Kin1968 (I spent 1968 with my cousins Courtney and Kelly)

Multiple Facts About You

You can creatively combine multiple (not obvious) dates, facts or occasions into a passphrase. Examples:

GertieFast98 (My Dachshund, Gertie was a Nebraska champion racer in 1998)

1188&jsb3 (Married on June 11, 1988 and my kids are Jane, Sally and Brad)

778291gr@d (Graduated high school in 1977, college in 1982, Masters degree in 1991)

10Chief02 (I was named Grand Chief of my Lodge on October 13, 2002)

paris93JP (Went to Paris in 1993 with John and Penny)

Still MORE ideas!

There are many other formulas and methods that people use to generate passwords that are meaningful to them. Some are reminiscent of decoder rings and spy-proof secrets, while others are just as friendly as the ones listed above. Here are some links that discuss some additional ideas:

CARTOON: ‘Through 20 years of effort, we’ve successfully trained everyone to use passwords that are hard for humans to remember, but easy for computers to guess.’ -XKCD

Passwords to Avoid

NEVER write your password down and keep it with your computer. Also, popular local sports teams are a bad idea for your password.

Humans are predictable creatures. In an effort to come up with a password that is memorable, we often turn to familiar ideas to generate a password that we think no one could EVER guess. Here are some words and phrases that you should always avoid, because a human or computer might guess it.

password
123456
Sports teams (huskers1, packers87, bulls23)
Names (family, pets, celebrities, etc.)
A single word, no matter how long
Keyboard patterns (qwerty, asdfg, 12120909, etc.)
Dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) unless combined with unrelated data
Personal information (SSN, license plate, address, phone numbers, etc.)
Any password on this list (CAUTION: this list contains inappropriate language)
Any of the above with the number 1 or 2 added to the end of it.
Any password you have previously used with an additional digit appended to the end.
Secrets of any kind
Any password that would be embarrassing if you accidentally typed it on a screen in front of a room full of people.

Helping Hands

Password Card

http://www.passwordcard.org

A PasswordCard is a credit card-sized card you keep in your wallet, which lets you pick very secure passwords for all your websites, without having to remember them! You just keep them with you, and even if your wallet does get stolen, the thief will still not know your actual passwords.

Password Manager Software

Many of us maintain a great number of unique passwords. One for every site we visit. This is a great security practice, but it makes your digital life difficult. No matter how good your memory is, this is bound to get confusing. If you are looking for some computer aided assistance, try a password manager like

We do not recommend using the built-in “remember this password?” services found in most traditional web browsers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, etc.). These are not secure by default. Anyone with a moment of access to your computer can open your browser preferences and view all of your saved passwords.