PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGA ZINE OF ILTA 32
Pick something abstract and uncommon, but extremely familiar to you. Then
create a hint.
EXAMPLES:
• I grew up on Starkington Drive. (Hint: Kid Street)
• My father's first car was a Gremlin. (Hint: Dad's Car)
• I loved the drink Tang as a kid. (Hint: Fav Drink)
Note: Many websites require both upper- and lowercase letters in passwords.
Pick a number that is extremely familiar to you, but nothing obvious, and then
create a hint.
EXAMPLES:
• My football numbers in high school (23) and college (65). 2365 (Hint: High&Coll Football)
• My phone number when I was a kid was 555-123-6789. 6789 (Hint: Kid Phone)
• The year I was born is 1978. That backward is 8791. (Hint: Born Back)
Look at the website you are visiting, and pick the first few letters.
EXAMPLES:
• www.gmail.com — gma (Hint: Web3) or gm (Hint: Web2)
• www.live.com — liv (Hint: Web3) or l (Hint: Web1)
• www.toshiba.com — to (Hint: Web2)
Pick a special character. (! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < = > ? @ [ \ ] ^ _ ` { | } ~)
EXAMPLES:
• ! (Hint: Wow)
• % (Hint: Part)
• * (Hint: In the Sky)
Note: Many websites require a special character because they increase the password's level of
security.
Create your password hint.
EXAMPLES:
• For the site toshiba.com: Dad's Car,
High&Coll Football, Web3, Wow
• For the site live.com: Born-Back, Fav
Drink, Web1, Web3, Part
• For the site gmail.com: Kid Street, Kid
Phone, Web2, Web3, In the Sky
Could you decode the hints?
• Gremlin2365tos!
• 8791Tanglliv%
• Starkington6789gmgma*
Save your hints in a safe spot!
Password managers are another viable
option to store/remember and easily
retrieve your passwords. My preference is
the ugly password methodology because
the password is only exposed when I'm
logging into a specific website. However,
as we have learned from recent security
breaches, you can never be 100 percent
secure.
by Philip Sultan of Watt, Tieder, Hoffar & Fitzgerald
Here's how I build ugly, and relatively secure, passwords:
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The
Password Method
