How to generate a strong password for your important account such as GMail / Yahoo email / FaceBook / Twitter / Paypal / virtual disk encrypted with TrueCrypt?
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1, Use a GUID generator
GUID( Globally unique identifier ) is a 32-bit hexadecimal string which was promised to be an absolutely unique number, such as 602ebc7c-080e-4d9b-a06b-1ce92def1e0a, and there are plenty of online GUID generators.
2, Use a MD5 hash generator
Using your birth date or mobile number as a password is silly, for instance, 19880123 is too plain and too simple , but if you create a MD5 hash of 19880123, you will get a very complicated string: 98bf51669e7a5552403f3f15f59788c2.
3, Use a SHA1 hash generator
How about a password like 8d969eef6ecad3c29a3a629280e686cf0c3f5d5a86aff3ca12020c923adc6c92? Actually it’s the SHA-1 hash checksum value of the string “123456″.
4, Use a Random Password Generator
Yesterday we covered an excellent random password generator – Wireless Key Generator, it is an easy using and powerful utility for creating strong password.
5, Use an Old-School Tabula Recta
John Graham-Cumming, an Oxford-trained computer programmer and mathematician with a doctorate in computer security, shares why he prefers writing his passwords down, and how he uses an old-school cipher technique to keep his wallet-friendly passwords secure. Read more about: How to Write Down and Encrypt Your Passwords with an Old-School Tabula Recta on lifehacker.
It’s a good idea to generate your sensitive and critical passwords using a combined method based on any two arbitrarily ways chosen from the 5 ones above.