What is the safest password combination?

jeiss Level 1

November 15, 2017, 11:19 am

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What is the safest password combination?

I have been a bit confused about the kind of password to use for my user accounts. There have been times during the course of registration for some website I have been prompted to use alphanumeric passwords while some other websites don't mind the kind of password combination I use be it purely alphabetic, numeric or alphanumeric. In fact, some registration forms require that your password contains symbols.

It is easier for me to remember a password written in alphabets or alphanumeric characters with one or two numbers but adding symbols makes it complicated and harder to remember. I read that alphanumeric passwords with symbols are very secure and difficult to decipher. How valid is this statement?

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limberg

limberg

Actually it's easy to remember a password with letters, numbers and symbols. It's the most secure of all passwords and I already find mine easy to remember. If you're going to add numbers to your password, you could include your favorite number, part of your phone number, or maybe a portion of your ID number. And if you're going to add symbols, just use the symbols that your usually use like a question mark, an exclamation point, or a period.

7 years ago

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RhealaineS

RhealaineS

I totally agree with you. There are also some accounts in which you need a password with uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols. That will make your password stronger and will lessen the risk of your account being hacked. Just make sure that you will remember your password after setting a complex one.

7 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

Yeah I agree with you on that. That would be the perfect and easy passwords combination. When you making a password,it should be related the letters and numbers to you so that you can easily remember it. The easier the better but make sure also that you will not share it to others.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

It can be difficult to remember passwords like this. That's why you should make it catchy. Like an easy to recall pattern. I enjoy using familiar words combined with numbers. That's how my friends use theirs.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

Yes much better make a difficult password especially in your bank account. We have online bank application that we can download online and it requires username and password. I had this application on my mobile phone and I made a uneasy to guest passwords ever. This is for my own protection and my bank account safety as well.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

That's right. It's better for the safety of your bank account. You should never compromise when money is involved. Always ensure the highest chance of protection.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

That is so right. We should be more careful about the bank details and other related to it because money is money and it needs to keep safe all the time. There are many hackers out there and they are really smart so we need to be smarter to them.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

Yes, I forgot the hackers. That's why digital transactions are somewhat more likely to be under attack. Professional hackers can easily get all your data if you're not careful. So if you're handling big money, it's safer to go straight to the bank.

6 years ago

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augusta

augusta

To get the best out of this issue is not to think about remembering your password but more about the security of the account.When you think about remembering you'll always think of very simple password which will defeat the whole essence of security. I will prefer you get a diary where you write down our password and keep your dairy safe. This way you can have the needed complex password. I don't believe in simple password. it gets hacked easily.

7 years ago

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jeiss

jeiss

Is writing your password in one's diary really safe in the real sense? Irrespective of where you keep your diary, you become vulneraable to hacking the moment somebody gains access to your diary.

I learnt the safest place to store one's passwords is our brain.

7 years ago

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RhealaineS

RhealaineS

I agree with you. If you can just remember your password, it will be very safe. Unlike if you will write it down. But some people are having a hard time memorizing their passwords. in my case, I always message myself about my password.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

I did that. I also wrote my password in my memo pad so that incase I dont remember it I can easily take my memo pad and see that password of mine. It is really hard to remember the password sometimes but if you write them somewhere then it is easy to recover it.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

Some people write theirs behind organizers. It's the notebook kind that's used for scheduling and stuff. Others use sticky notes and post it on their work desks. Though, it might get lost after some time if you use sticky notes.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

Better to write it on the organizer compared to sticky notes. I did write my passwords in the sticky note and when I forgot my password I could not find the sticky note where I wrote it. Organizer is better because you can easy to find it.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I laughed a bit. That happened to you too. I feel like everyone has written theirs on a piece of sticky note at some point. So it's only useful for writing something down.

But it's important to transfer what you wrote later. Like on the organizer you always use.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

Yes, that's true. It's difficult to remember strong passwords. Often they'll have lots of characters with combined numbers and letters. They won't even make sense.

Funny enough I also send myself messages regarding passwords. But it's sometimes a request for password change as I've lost my old passwords. So it's better to save them somewhere like a notepad text document.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I feel like once you write your password, it becomes vulnerable to being read. The key thing is to make it so that your password hidden in plain sight. You could add stuff that would mask your password.

Like writing a bunch of unrelated stuff other than it. Also, it's best to store it somewhere no one will think to look.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

Brain is the most safest I believe so also. Nobody can get it to our brain. Even the smartest hackers in the world cant hack it. The only problem is that when you will forget it and not memorize at all.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

There's truth to this. I guess most of us are lax in terms of password use for non-essential accounts. Stuff that can easily be replaced like game accounts. But for more sensitive information, a powerful password combination is always recommended.

6 years ago

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ballyhara

ballyhara

This can be very hard for me, because usually if the password is too long or complicated, then I totally forget about it. So, I got tired of it, and downloaded an app that makes them for me, and keep them safe in a vault. I know, this may sound lazy, but believe me guys, it's easier and guaranteed. Also, I have a lot of passwords to remember, and I always ended up mixing them, so this have solved my problem, and make me feel less stressed about it.

7 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

The safest password is a combination of alphabets in uppercase as well as lowercase, numbers and special characters. However, sometimes it is difficult to remember this kind of password combination. You can use your birthday to create a password. here is an example.
if you were born in 1990 April 21, you can create a password something like

21/ApriL1990?

7 years ago

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jeiss

jeiss

Haha! This is really smart. I hope this kind of combination can't get hacked easily.

7 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

The funny thing is that people are telling us not to do this. I've read lots of articles that advises against using birthdays for passwords. They seem to have a point. But I don't see anything wrong with utilizing birthdays for an easier to recall combination

6 years ago

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vinaya

vinaya

That was just an example. As you can see the password uses a combination of upper case lower case, numbers and special characters, it will be difficult to predict. Plus you are using something that you can associate it will also be easier to remember. You need a password that is easy to remember yet difficult for others to guess.

6 years ago

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Krisleen

Krisleen

It's true that the safest password combination is a combination of small and capital letters, numbers, and a symbol. It may not be that easy to remember due to many characters but at least it's strong. There are some ways to make it easy to remember. One way is to make it related to you. I usually do that to my password. For the symbol, I either use a period or characters that can form smileys. Don't put symbols at the middle so it won't be confusing or hard to remember. Underscore is also good. It can serve as a space between alphanumeric characters. It's less confusing as well. No matter how hard it can be, strong password is still much preferable to make our account secured.

7 years ago

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jaymish2

jaymish2

I also think that alphanumerical passwords with symbols are more secure. I think they are harder to hack. How many guesses would a hacker have to make? I think guessing would be almost impossible. I also think that you should use letters or numbers that have no association with you or with your family members. Most people tend to use passwords which have their names, birthdays or those of their family members. I think this makes it easy for hackers.

7 years ago

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jeiss

jeiss

Good point about having passwords with letters or numbers that have no association with one in any way.

7 years ago

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gelotologist

gelotologist

Great tip, it would actually make it harder for the hackers to hack it. Like there is no way they would know it. And I agree that using a password that has your name or has to do with your life, like you birthday is somewhat predictable. So, using something non-sense would actually help you from not getting hacked on anyways.

7 years ago

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Pixie06

Pixie06

I hate to add symbols to my passwords but some sites make it compulsory for you to insert them. I had to reset my password to a particular site on several occasions as I couldn't remember the password. I think that alphanumeric passwords are the best. They are safer and also easier to remember.

7 years ago

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mildredtabitha

mildredtabitha

It is true that passwords with symbols are hard to hack. I encountered a similar problem when it came to creating a password for my online bank account because the system only accepted passwords with too many symbols and other characters. I find such passwords to be hard to remember and so I always write them down for reference.

7 years ago

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potentialwriter

potentialwriter

While trying to choose your password, you simply need to combine some special characters which should include upper case, lower case, symbols, letters and other similar characters. If you are able to make a combination that is case sensitive for all of your accounts, then your account will be safe. There are hundreds of email scammers online who defraud online by tampering with other people's accounts. They steal a lot of money and make others cry for doing so.

Some of these scammers are computer gurus. Some even studied computer engineering in school. They have diverted what they learned in school into defrauding other people and stealing their money.

7 years ago

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MendasDigital

MendasDigital

Security is relative to the point of access you're defending against.

If you're trying to protect against someone (or a machine) guessing your password then, a long and complex password is ideal, especially if there is no imposed login attempt limit. If you're trying to protect against someone stealing your password from you then, simple and short is the best, because you're more likely to remember it, and less likely to write it down, or use password keeper tools. If you're trying to protect against someone stealing your password from an account (eg: hackers break into a website and steal all the password data) then, a long and complex password is ideal, because it less likely to be guessed through trial and error (keep in mind how many guesses a computer can make per second!), or be present on lists of common passwords.

Typically users want to be well protected against all points of access which, means choosing a password that has balance. Something that is long and complex enough to be fairly unique, but also simple and short enough that you can remember it without writing it on a sticky note. While many people recommend NOT using dictionary words, for a balanced password I suggest using word combinations that are easy to remember, and adding in numbers, capitals, and special characters (eg: "whEnprovidEsdumplings#87").

What's best for a password depends on what you're protecting, and what you feel is your most vulnerable point of access. For example, when creating discardable accounts, I typically use extremely long passwords comprised of random combinations of letters, numbers, and special characters, because I'm concerned more about someone guessing the password, than someone stealing the password from me. On the other hand, when it comes to my regular accounts, I prefer to use something more balanced, because I may need to remember them.

7 years ago

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jeiss

jeiss

Thanks for this....I sincerely hope a lot of folks out there will borrow a leaf from this.

7 years ago

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peachpurple

peachpurple

I say, the safest and the best is the combination of Capital letters mix with numeric numbers and small letters. Symbols, underscore, +, _- should be excluded. If possible, 2 stages of password security is even better.

7 years ago

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Baburra

Baburra

There are some programs out there now that claim they can take care of your password management for you, and while I'm sure they are safe, I just can't bring myself to trust them because I am too old school. I think the safest combination is picking out something that has uppercase letters and some numbers, and picking something that you can jumble around so you can change them when used in other sites. That way you don't end up using just one password for all sites which can be unsafe.

7 years ago

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jeiss

jeiss

Using a program to manage my passwords might be a good idea too like you pointed out but I also don't trust them.

My best bet is to have them stored in your brain. It's more secured therein.

7 years ago

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Rumu

Rumu

I guess you should use the C.I.A password...i can provide you with one if you need it.#laughs.

The best password to use in terms of remembering will be passwords created with letters. But it's just unfortunate that few sites do not accept passwords with letters only. I think its cool though. It's probably for your best interest.

I think the idea of mixing up letter passwords with numbers is great. It not only makes the password strong, it's also increases your chance of a secured user account.

7 years ago

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kgord

kgord

It seems like most businesses want you to use a combination of numbers and letters. These seem to be the way to get the kind of security you need with your blog or website. I notice with password creation tools this seems what they are always asking for.

7 years ago

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Adesuwa08

Adesuwa08

When dealing with passwords especially those that are of importance of you, you have to choose a very strong password which cannot be broken and hacked, also you have to make a password that is very easy to remember so when picking a password for your site remember that it is not only about a strong password combination.

It doesn't mean that you shouldnt create a strong password dont get me wrong, strong passwords are needed in some sites thats why some sites create passwords them self.the best password combination is the one with both capital, small alphabets and numerical figures. Just try memorising it so you don't loose it or better still write it in a book you will never loose.

7 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

"...also you have to make a password that is very easy to remember..."

I don't think that this is necessarily true. I think the most important aspect about remembering passwords is writing them down. I've sometimes forgotten the easiest of passwords, simply because I forgot that it was associated to a specific account. If you write down your passwords and what accounts they're associated with, then you can make your password as complicated as you'd like, making it nearly impossible to hack. I personally create and print an excel spreadsheet with spaces to write down my usernames and passwords, so everything is manually done on paper and not hackable.

7 years ago

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treecko142

treecko142

The strongest combination is still a mixture of lowercase and uppercase letters accompanied by numbers and special characters, which is at least 6 characters long. If you are managing a large number of accounts but want different passwords for each, you can just list it on a piece of paper you can post in your home, or just vary the last 3 characters of your password in a manner that you can easily remember.

7 years ago

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DenisP

DenisP

Easier passwords are certainly more convenient when it comes to remembering them, but they also make it easier for hackers to decipher your password using special programs. The more variety that you add to your password, the harder it will be for a program to find the right combination, or make it downright impossible/unreasonably difficult. I think a good password has a combination of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and a few symbols thrown in there. While not all of us might be able to remember these passwords, it is a good idea to grab a paper and write them down anyway. I've seen too many occasions where people have forgotten even the simplest of passwords.

7 years ago

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mitan143

mitan143

Creating a unique password might be a good way like you combine alphanumeric and other symbols like period or comma or etc but it may be also hard for you to remember your password combinations especially if you created your account a long time. But I believe there are a lot of programs today that generate possible passwords that hackers usually get from your personal information or any related things from you. So I think the best password is something that you like but you never told or post to anyone and to any sites.

7 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

The safest password I know is a random combination of keys, symbols, and numerals. Special characters make it so much harder to decipher your password. And sometimes longer ones work really well. It depends on how safe you want your password to be. Though, it can be tiresome to follow all those codes.

7 years ago

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edencaga

edencaga

What I did was I always put numbers with letters. its either there's a capital letter or only those small letters. for it to be more safer and secured, I always include symbols for that. It only depends on you what numbers, letters or symbols you want to save and put.

7 years ago

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ChristineOh

ChristineOh

They usually ask us to make a combination of alphanumeric and a combination of password with a lowercase and uppercase. In making your password more secure, I'm suggesting to combined both alphanumeric with a uppercase and lowercase. As an addition, try to add some symbols. The content of the password should also not too obvious. Using your birthdate and nickname was to usual so it's much better if you will use a word that is not related to you. For example, "Carbonara/99", "LasVegas-01Bb", and anything that is not usual.

7 years ago

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bienn05

bienn05

I think the best way to remember and have a secured password is to have a unique password. It should contain upper and lower case letters. It should also contain special characters. Do this to all your accounts so you could not forget about your password.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I do this as well. But I find it difficult to use. So I mostly save mine just in case I forget it. You never know when you're going to lose track of all your passwords.

6 years ago

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cmoneyspinner

cmoneyspinner

I've heard people say that a really great password has a combination of letters, numbers, and symbols and should be anywhere from 6 to 10 characters (or whatever). But come on. How many numbers are there? How many symbols are there? How many letters are there? Don't tell me somebody can't write a computer program to come up with all the possible combinations and eventually figure out your password.

I get kind of annoyed when signing up at a site and the site's system tells me my password is unacceptable and then requires me to include CAPS or a symbol or a number. I'm like: “It's MY flipping password! I'm the one making it up. Not your system!”

I was watching a movie or a TV show, and these bad guys were trying to keep something hidden from the good guys. Typical plot. One bad guy needed to know the password and the other bad guy says: “Pay attention. It's really tricky. The password is '123456'.” Then he laughs. But that was the real password. Who would have guessed it? Right?

Sure! Somebody might still figure out your password. But some of the most expensive luxury homes with state of the art security systems still get burglarized. The point is: the thief didn't just walk right in through a wide open door!

So I guess the lesson to be learned when it comes to passwords is:

Pick something easy for you to remember but not something anybody would easily guess.

6 years ago

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mark8625

mark8625

I think you should create a password connected to you personality. It should be contained of your names,birthdays or other related numbers or words from you or from your family. Hackers are everywhere and there are so many kind of them, whatever the combinations of our passwords they could track it and hack our accounts.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

Sometimes people use food because their personality is related to that. Like how geeks use terminology known in Science Fiction movies for their passwords. I imagine using something like "donuts" is easy to recall.

Just name a food and add numbers along with special symbols. Good to go.

6 years ago

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kinja90

kinja90

To be safe, don't use any related information about yourself like your birthday, name of your pet, name of your relatives, street name ,etc. Your password should be unique and you can easily remember or understand. There are also some recommendations that you should not use the same password on your different account. If in the unlikely manner that one of your account gets hacked, then it will not compromise your other accounts since you're using a different password.

There are a lot of method online to help you remember your strong passwords. I'll mention one. You can try the Bruce Schneier's Method where you can make a sentence into your password.

example :
mm@tgsita = meet me at the grocery store in the afternoon.

If you're still having trouble remembering it, you can try to use a vault password. There are a lot online where you can save your logins and you just need to remember 1 password to open your vault.

6 years ago

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blackmist

blackmist

For me combining letters and numbers are the most safest way. Also include capslock. Strong password is a must for our account to be more secure. A lot of hackers are out their looking for vulnerable account and stealing any information or money from it. That's why many website require as to use password that are combination of numbers and letters just for our account to be safe. Just wrote your password on a piece of paper in case you forgot your password.

6 years ago

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Steve5

Steve5

I also read something about using the underscore key. It seems that hackers find it a bit harder to decipher your password when you add it. It could be something about the unique quality of the underscore sign.

6 years ago

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Corzhens

Corzhens

In our office, we have a convention for passwords that are used in the company’s applications. It is not only a mixture of letter and number plus special characters but there’s a sort of sequence that we have to follow. I cannot detail the exact convention because I know that it is a sort of secret but the hint is that it will be easier to remember but hard to decode.

6 years ago

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