May 5th is Password Day

 Changing passwords may be the bane of our existence! Only if you have been hacked can you know the misery of making changes after the fact – knowing you could have prevented the whole nightmare if you had been more diligent. Part of the problem stems from remembering those passwords, and the fear of typing one incorrectly.

We have so many accounts to protect - our banks, internet accounts, credit cards, stores, social media accounts, it’s daunting. How do we keep it all straight – AND change those passwords at least once a year.

Experts say our passwords should be about 14 characters long, and should include both upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and symbols.  How will we ever remember a dozen different passwords with those criteria? Try creating memorable sentences then assign the first letter of each word in the sequence to create a password. For example - We have 3 dogs - 2 Yorkies & 1 lovable MUTT, becomes Wh3d-2Y&olM4. When January rolls around change the 4 to a 5 (for 2025) and you are good for another year.

Another creative way to remember might be to select a category – perhaps Candy and allow the first letter of the candy to correspond to the first letter of the account you are protecting. For instance, your Mortgage Bank might be $MilkyWayBar24. Or Amazon could be AlmondJoy!nuts24. The punctuation marks add security and won’t be difficult for you to remember if you are clever about their use.