A problem suffered by yet another git we’re all just getting to know, inspired me to ask all of you if you’ve put much thought into the passwords you use to take part in, well… life.

It’s nothing new; in fact, not that long ago, quite a list of Twitter members found themselves the victims of one of the easiest types of hacking out there, the dictionary fail.

With the Twitter case, it was an 18 year old hacker who’d previously been known for hacking celebrities like Miley Cyrus. He simply used a self-authorized dictionary attacker and let it run all night. He was lucky enough to secure the password of a Twitter employee and once inside her account, found he could get access to change the password for many other member accounts. He chose a few famous folks (like Obama, Fox News and CNN’s Rick Sanchez) and went to town with it! In the case of the Twitter employee, she’d used a password as simple as the word ‘happiness’, but even those of you who think your word is a good choice because it’s something obscure or bizarre, I assure you that if it’s in a dictionary, you can be hacked!

Those in the know suggest that a good password is one that adds numbers as well as symbols and punctuation to a word in such a way that it becomes a new entity. Also, the use of both upper and lower case is advised. With all these factors, it becomes much more difficult to crack/hack a password.

Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? How would you like to have to remember something like ePk%h3wM in order to log in though? What if you have multiple accounts with passwords like that one? Good passwords, sure… but crikey, my fraccy brain is too old for that!

There are tools available to help you come up with one of these superhero-type passwords. Password Bird will take information you provide and create such a word. He’s a cute bird, and the resulting password will truncate some of the words you provide it with, so as to create something obscure. PCTools and Strong Password Generator both allow you to choose the variables and then just click.

With all three though, the resulting word doesn’t seem to be any easier to remember than ePk%h3wM and the downside of those is all of that makes passwords a big chore to remember. People will then resort to writing them down, which opens them up to abuse from anyone finding where they’ve written it down. Seems like you just can’t win, doesn’t it?

Well… I have a solutions for all of that, and have decided to share my fraccy tips with all of you.

Make up a silly phrase using all of those factors, and then you won’t have a problem remembering it. For example:

dP8,winD4u&mE

Taking a step back, you can see the password actually tells a story.

dP (Daddy Papersurfer) 8 (ate) ,winD (self explanatory) 4u&mE (for you and me).

You see, the phrase can be memorable to you and still use all the factors, making it hard for others to figure out. Using this Password Strength Checker, my memorable password checked out at 100%.  Woo hoo, I have superpowers!

Well, at least my password does.

I actually have quite a bit of fun with this. Some days, I even use my passwords as a means to vent something (or someone) I am angry about. Try it. You might have as much fun as I do. Then again… perhaps there’s a bit of ‘batty’ in me. At any rate, you and your information will be much safer online, and that… is a good thing.

[Fracas has been a member of Fuelmyblog since April 9, 2007, is the author/owner of the Fracas and Fraccers blogs as well as Fraccers. The Store.]