How to select a secure password

This is probably one of the hardest parts of online computering. What do you guys think?
Do you change passswords every months as convention wisdom reccommends?
How do you choose a good password?
What is a good strong password?
Do you have dozens of different one?

One the banks site (I am assuming that Banks have some good advice on the matter!!) a good password is one that contains a mixture of numbers, letters (also Caps) and symbols. Should be a minimum of 8 characters. Right..so it must be complicated to make it secure but simple enough to remember - hmmmm..no easy feat IMHO.

This is what I do
Think of a date that is important to you say for example the date you got your first kiss/**** :P. The format can be 19508 or 19.05.08 or 19/5/08
Then add to that the lucky lady's initials/name : Rose Mary Marlo (apologies to any Rose Mary Marlo out there but this is a work of fiction)
So you combine the two and get 19.05.08mjs You can then play with that combination and add symbols or caps to make it even harder to break (and remember)
19*05/08MjS or 19-05+08mJS etc.

Another way I have used is to remember a well known song or expression, book title, film. Say for example "Life is like a bowl of Cherries" Take the first letters and it looks like -LILABOC, then you can change the letters for numbers L1L4B0C, stick a couple of symbols in and there you go.

Anyone else got any ideas?

Glad to be of help Johnny
Those online computer generated ones sound scary, I would never be able to remember 24 digits. Even writing them down would make no difference as you get those little asteriks in the box and could never check your spelling . No not for me, maybe good if you are a secret agent but it would take me ages to sign in.

I use the fingerprint scanner to log onto my laptop. Hopefully my finger will always be with me! :bleh:

This is something I've always worried about, but put to the back of my mind. I use the same password, or a variant thereof, for all the forums and websites I use. However, my dad chooses a password for online shopping sites, as it's their credit card, so if someone was to find out my chosen password, they couldn't cause too many problems.

I've thought about using one of those online password generators, that make up a 24 digit key (or somewhere thereabouts,) but as I see it, you'd have to keep a hard or digital copy of the number to be able to remember it.

After reading this though, I think I'm going to start using your method once a month, thinking of a memorable date and some initials relevant to it.

I know people who have memorised their entire credit card number etc, so when they shop online they dont need to reach for their card etc! Now someone who memorises credit card numbers like that, should be able to memorise a long number for a password easy :biggrin:

Dont worry guys, with forum software, as with many other pieces of software, and networks in general, you cant see user passwords!