I have tried in vain to convince innumerable persons to use real complex passwords.  It’s not easy.  Everyone thinks you have to use something like 8*cfi4*kn0> as your password.

Well, you could.  That would be complex.  But there are easier and more secure routes to securing your password.

The trouble is that if you use something that’s short (fewer than 8 or ten characters) or something you could find in a dictionary (like Brother or pianoWire) it’s really fucking easy to hack your password.  Easy, that is, for a computer to hack your password.

If you want to ensure your password is easy for a human to guess at, then use your birth date (or your relative’s) or your pet’s name or your kid’s name or…

However, consider this, if your password is this sentence it’s complex and easy to remember.  That last sentence is 92 characters long, has capital letters and lower case letters, and contains several symbols.  A password that complex might take millions of years for a computer to guess (I don’t feel like doing the math but it’s very big).

You could use a smaller sentence.  Use something you can remember and which is not a catch phrase from your favorite movie which you constantly quote (that takes us back to easy for humans to guess).

For an excellent illustration of this problem and solution set, please see this cartoon.

For a lengthy and likely boring discussion on rainbow tables and hacking passwords read this post along with the comments section.

Regardless, don’t make it any easier for assholes to steal your soul on-line identity.