Choosing Strong Passwords For Your Ecommerce Site

Password crackers are getting better at their “craft” with each passing year. Most use brute force password guessing algorithms that are constantly being improved. These improvements mean the algorithms are using more smarts and less brawn. For example, they use multiple dictionaries in different languages, lists of names, cities, towns, and even phonetic patterns. They employ the common substitutions of numbers and characters for letters such as @ for “a” and $ for “s.”

The people developing these algorithms tend to be highly intelligent and motivated. While this might seem like an enormous amount of effort, remember that fast computers are good at doing these sorts of things. For the person developing the algorithm, it is a stimulating intellectual exercise.

If you own an ecommerce site or any website that has a “back end” that is logged into, your password must be strong. What is a strong password? For now, that means it must have a minimum length of 12 to 14 characters. It should have a mix of different letter cases, numbers, and special symbols that are generated randomly. Randomly generated passwords like this aren’t easily remembered which is why password managers should be used. However, password managers aren’t always available.

Fortunately, there are a couple of password generation techniques that make it possible to remember reasonably strong passwords. Perhaps the best method in terms of password strength is to go to an online random password generator and keep pushing the generate button until you find one that can be remembered phonetically. This means their pronunciation results in a silly but memorable series of sounds. You should also try to put a tune to the sounds. Melody is a great memory enhancer. When selecting an online random password generator, make sure the site is legitimate.

Another method entails using the first, second or last letter of a series of words generated in a way that is unique to your subjective or objective world. For example, within your study at home, you might pick out a series of permanent objects or their attributes that can be used as your list of words. Whenever you are in your study, repeatedly look at them in a specific order.

You can also use different objects or features in the various rooms of your home. Remembering your password means recalling this journey through your home in terms of these objects. The brain is very adept at remembering visual images and cues. You can also incorporate the objects into a story. The more outlandish the story, the easier it can be remembered.

After generating the sequence, write down the first, second or last letter of each word in lower case. Then add in a few spacers that consist of upper case letters, numbers, and special characters. The spacers could be used to group objects that are common to each room in your home for example. In this way, you can memorize a 12 to 14 character password that is reasonably strong.

For more information on keeping your ecommerce site secure, contact us.

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About Jeff Collins
