Information Systems Security

ISSN: 1065-898X (Print) 1934-869X (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/uiss19

10 Password-Generation Techniques for Users

To cite this article: (1998) 10 Password-Generation Techniques for Users, Information Systems
Security, 6:4, 8-9, DOI: 10.1080/10658989809342544
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10658989809342544

Published online: 22 Jan 2008.

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Date: 16 March 2016, At: 06:54

10 Password- Generation

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Techniquesfor Users

sers who want strong passwords

that they can remember should try
one of the following password-generation
techniques or use a combination of them.
(For any password to be effective, that
ass word must not be known or easily
guessed; it must not be displayed, stored,
or transmitted in the clear; and it must be
remembered by the authorized user!)

4. Mirror a word (in either direction);

repeat process or truncate letters as
needed to get appropriate length.
GUS7TSUG BOYYOBBOY
FLAREERA FILLLLIF
5. Use every other letter in a phrase until
you have enough letters.
NWSHTMFR: "Nowi l the time fol
all ..."

1. Create a phonetic sentence using the

pronounced sounds of the letters,
numbers. or special characters.
IlOD24GET: "1 tend to forget."

TBONTOEH: "To be or not to be,

that .. ."
6. Use a number (e.g., the day or the
month of your birthday) as an offset
into a phrase, then use the letters from
that point forward until you have
enough letters for your password. You
may elect to count spaces and punctuation or not.
PERFECTU: "We the people, in
order to form a more perfect
union .. ." where my day of birth is
the 30th. (I counted only letters.)

RULOSTIM: "Are you lost? I am!"

187#2DAY: "I ate seven pounds
today."
2. Concatenate short, unrelated words.
GOCATSAY BLACKAND
GRASSPAW GRAYPOUR
WINTEROF
3. Use the first letter of each word in a
poem or song until you have enough
letters (e.g., at least six).
JAJWUTH: "Jack and Jill went up
the hill ..."
HINSNJA: "Help! I need somebody.
Not just anybody ..."
WWYAMCWW: "We wish you a
merry Christmas. W e wish ..."

HENIGHTB: "Twas the night

before Christmas and all through
the house ..." Where the number
is 7. (I counted punctuation and
spaces aswell as letters.)
7. Using the telephone keypad (but
assigning "Q"and "Z" to the number
"1") as shown, choose a number you
can easily remember and translate it
into letters. If your number includes a

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zero, just keep the "0" as the character

for your password. You will note that
for each number (except zero) you will
have at least two letter choices.
12345678 QADILORT or
ZBEHKNRU
24689753 CIMUXRLE or
AGMTWPJD
10078699 ZOOSTOWY or
QOORUNXX
8. Take your full name (or some other
name you like and can easily remember). Divide it into segments or blocks
of the length you need for your password. You may rotate back through
the name again if you need additional
letters or truncate any extra letters.
Drop the first block. Use any other
block that is not an exact match for a
proper name or word.
"John Quincy Adams" -t
JOHNQUIN CYADAMSJ +
CYADAMSJ
"Alexander Graham Bell" -+
ALEXAN DERGRA HAMBEL +
DERGRA

I N F O R M A T I O N

9. Take a word from the dictionary that is

long enough to qualify as a password.
Replace all the vowels with numbersor
special characters (e.g., "#," "$," "@,"
or whatever special characters your
system permits in passwords).
"mornings" -+ M$RN$GS
"psychotic" + PSlCH2T3C
10. Take a word from the dictionary (or a
proper name you like) that is long
enough to qualify as a password. Put
all of the vowels together and all of the
consonants together.
"friends" -t IEFRNDS or
FRNDSlE
"Douglas" -+ OUADGLS or
DGLSOUA
These 10 techniques may help users to
invent techniques of their own. Just using a
technique improves one's ability to mernorize a password. Passwords, of course,
should not be written down or stored where
they might be discovered by some. And, as
good as the examples used here are, users
should not adopt them as their own. They
will probably find their way into some password-cracking dictionary!

S E C U R I T Y
W \ N T 6 R

1.sn

A W A R E N E S S