Passwords

Much has been written about passwords, but there are still people who use default settings (e.g. 0000) or easy combinations like abc123.  One reason they give is that they can't remember their passwords so they keep it simple.

What I do is use old phone numbers in different combinations, and then email that password to myself.  For example, I might use the number of my first mobile phone, 123456, but spell out one of the numbers.  Because passwords are case sensitive, a capital "E" is different from a lower case "e".  So my password might be 12thrEe456.  Then, in my email, I'll write
"first mobile"
*****E***6

Of course, "123456" is an easy combination to guess, but if I use an authentic phone number, most people won't know what it is.

I also choose from a set of phone numbers and rotate them every once in a while.  This month, every password of mine (email, Facebook, Twitter, etc) is based on the very first home phone number we ever had. Even if someone knows that number, they won't know which numbers have been spelled out and what combination of caps and lower cases I've used.