Get ready for some upsetting news: the only way to ensure security in the modern world is to have distinct passwords for every online login system. The majority of online identity theft occurs when a common password is used for several sites. You might have a great password for your Bank of America account. You asked a friend, read an article, and came up with a brilliant mix of numbers, letters, and special characters. For example, this is a great password: “WLtdO2000@Baha”. In the year 2000, the music group Baha Men released their single “Who Let The Dogs Out” (WLtdO). If you’re a fan, you won’t forget that password, ever.
Now that you’re created a brilliant password, it’s time to use it every chance you get, right? Wrong! Bank of America has amazing security. Their team is awesome, and they know their stuff. That is not true across the board. Once you’ve used that same password for Bank of America, then Netflix, then GoComics.com, and then Chess.com, it is no longer secure. You have created many access points for hackers to get at your Bank of America account. Who knows the level of security at Chess.com? It certainly cannot compare to a major bank or credit card issuer. That’s just common sense.
So, here’s the fix: incorporate the name of the site into your password. A simple number or letter can make the password unique for each site. “Chess.com” has five letters in the domain name, so how about WLtdO2000@BahaFive or WLtdO2005@Baha? These simple changes to an otherwise-common password can help keep the password strong and still memorable. Perhaps you’d want CLtdO2000@Baha so that you can incorporate the “C” from “Chess” or maybe WLtdO2000@Bahag so that you have the “g” from “game” (as in “Chess Game”). That’s your call. All I want is unique passwords for every website you access. That way, one data breach will not lead to tons of others. If someone hacks your Chess.com account, perhaps you’ll lose a knight or a bishop, but not your life savings.
Please, help the friendly team at Bank of America by keeping your password private and dedicated to Bank of America.
Jeff is a computer enthusiast with over 25 years experience in web design, networking, and general computer use of both Macs and PCs. Jeff has worn many hats including Teacher, Writer, Techie, Trekkie, Mensan, and Chess enthusiast - one could say he's a well rounded individual. Check out his book on critical analysis at Amazon.
1 thought on “The Amazing Unbreakable, Changeable Password”
Steve
The problem comes when you need to change the password for any specific site. This often happens if the site has been compromised and asks you to change your password or has an expiry policy or you need to reset the password for some reason. Also, if your password for one site has been discovered, won’t the algorithm you have used be obvious and so give a hacker all your passwords?
What would be better, would be to use a hashed password and not the actual password. The site https://passwordchameleon.com/ allows you to do this. But you still have a problem if you have to change your password for a site.
The problem comes when you need to change the password for any specific site. This often happens if the site has been compromised and asks you to change your password or has an expiry policy or you need to reset the password for some reason. Also, if your password for one site has been discovered, won’t the algorithm you have used be obvious and so give a hacker all your passwords?
What would be better, would be to use a hashed password and not the actual password. The site https://passwordchameleon.com/ allows you to do this. But you still have a problem if you have to change your password for a site.