If you only needed one strong password, it would be easy to remember it for all your accounts. Unfortunately, password strength isn’t enough — you also need to create unique passwords to minimize your exposure to various cybersecurity risks.

The need for uniqueness makes it surprisingly complicated to keep track of passwords for all your accounts and maintain access to them on multiple devices. We’ll examine some of the most effective strategies for remembering secure passwords. You can also use a password manager to stay on top of your passwords.

5 Tips To Remember Your Passwords

1. Use passphrases

When you think of a memorable password, something brief probably comes to mind. However, longer passwords can be more secure and easier to remember than shorter ones. Regular passwords are still more popular than passphrases, but the latter has gained broader recognition over the last few years.

Unlike conventional passwords, passphrases comprise a set of full words. A dash or other mark usually separates each word. An example could be something like wooden-overpass-brilliant-policy.

Passphrases are much longer than most passwords, making them resistant to many attacks. The length keeps your account safe even if you only use lowercase letters with no numbers or special characters.

A 10-character password containing capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters would take 12 days to crack. That might sound like a long time, but it’s important to remember that you may not be able to react immediately when someone is trying to compromise your password.

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In contrast, something as simple as i-like-marvel-movies brings the estimated time to track up to the scale of centuries. Even though this password sounds simple, it would take thousands of times longer to crack than the much less memorable password above.

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Since they contain full words rather than a more random combination of characters, many people find them easier to remember. You can develop unique passphrases or rely on a password generator that supports passphrases.

2. Use capitals, numbers, and special characters together

With many websites and apps enforcing password requirements, it’s common for internet users to add numbers or special characters to the end of their passwords. Similarly, people tend to put capital letters at the beginning. For example, if you want to use the base password “biorhythm,” you might come up with something like Biorhythm123!.

Adding length and different types of characters is a good thing, but these kinds of patterns are well-known. You need to integrate these types of characters to protect your accounts fully. Fortunately, this shouldn’t make your passwords any more difficult to remember.

For example, !bIo3rHy2tHm1 would be much more difficult for someone to crack, even though it still follows an easily recognizable pattern.

Think about it like this — if someone knew that your password involved the word “biorhythm,” you wouldn’t feel very secure with the Biorhythm123! Password mentioned above. On the other hand, it would still probably take them hundreds of guesses to come up with !bIo3rHy2tHm1. This demonstrates you can use memorable patterns in your passwords without making them predictable.

3. Remember a keyboard pattern

Recalling specific strings of characters can be extremely difficult, especially when you’re working with many different accounts. You can make things a little easier by using a specific keyboard pattern that’s easier to remember than the characters themselves.

For example, you might use a pattern of one character, then three to the left, then two down, then four to the right. That could lead to a full password of 0987ujkl;’ — the keyboard pattern is more like a lock combination than a conventional password. This should make it easy to remember. At the same time, it contains 10 total characters including different types of characters, and it doesn’t include any recognizable words.

You could make things even more complex with other shapes and patterns. The password [p;’weds87ui is made up of three different squares from around the keyboard.

By placing the mnemonic on the physical keyboard instead of within the characters themselves, you could add memorability without making a password easy to guess. But you still need to watch out for obvious strings and patterns like qwerty.

4. Layer words on top of each other

Similarly, you can stack multiple words on top of each other instead of placed in sequential order. This strategy comes with most of the same benefits of a typical passphrase, but it makes the password much more difficult to work out.

Instead of i-like-marvel-movies from above, you could use something like ilmm-iao-krv-evi-ee-ls. This password starts with the first letters of each of the four words, then the second letters, and so on.

On one hand, this password is essentially as easy to remember as i-like-marvel-movies. As long as you remember the four words, you shouldn’t have any trouble putting the whole password together.

Still, the new password is virtually indecipherable to anyone who doesn’t understand the pattern. Most people would have trouble committing ilmm-iao-krv-evi-ee-ls to memory, even if they saw it written out in plain text. This is a great alternative to conventional passphrases for anyone who doesn’t feel secure with a password that contains full words.

5. Use a password manager

Remembering all of your passwords is great if you can pull it off, but most people struggle to keep track of their passwords even if they use good strategies. With typical internet users maintaining many different online accounts, staying on top of passwords on your own isn’t a realistic option.

Password managers do most of the work for you and eliminate the stress and confusion that comes with remembering passwords. In general, password managers accounts are secured with a single master password. The master password controls access to all the other passwords, so you don’t need to remember the rest as long as you recall the master.

Furthermore, top password managers can create strong passwords, analyze your existing passwords, and perform a variety of other helpful functions. Look at our list of the best password managers for more information.

Resources

Frequently Asked Questions About Secure Passwords

  • What is a strong password that is easy to remember?

    Use a mix of alphabetical and numeric, uppercase and lowercase, and special characters.

  • Which is the safest way to remember a password?

    Generate long and complex passwords, have a unique one for each of your accounts, store it securely, and don’t share your passwords with anyone.

  • What are the five basic rules to follow to create a really strong password?

    Create an unusual and long password, don’t reuse old passwords, and avoid common word combinations. Also, use a password generator and write your passwords down in a secure location.

  • What are three ways to ensure a strong password?

    Never use personal information such as your name, birthday, user name, or email address. Also, use multi-factor authentication (MFA) and choose a password that is hard to guess but easy to remember.

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About The Password Manager, Gunnar Kallstrom:

Kallstrom, The Password Manager, is a Cyber Team Lead for a Department of Defense (DOD) contracting company in Huntsville, Alabama, and has worked as a Computer Network Defense (CND) Cyber Analyst. An author and content creator for a cybersecurity academy, Kallstrom spent nearly 15 years in the Army as a musician before entering the cybersecurity field.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in music from Thomas Edison State University and a master’s in organizational development and leadership from the University of the Incarnate Word.

Kallstrom has completed several Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) courses, including Security+, Network+, A+ Core 1, and A+ Core 2. He earned a CompTIA Security+ Certification. Additionally, he has completed the Cyber Warrior Academy program with more than 800 hours of hands-on, intensive, and lab-driven technical training in cybersecurity methods and procedures.

Passionate about all things cyber, Kallstrom was a speaker on a panel at the 2022 InfoSec World conference, giving a talk entitled “Hacking into a Cyber Career – True Stories.” Kallstrom is also a mentor to entry-level cybersecurity candidates seeking to break into the field. When he’s not working, he still enjoys playing guitar and fishing (not phishing).