Lockdown.

After reading this article from Lifehacker, I got to thinking that maybe some of my passwords aren't as secure as they should be.  The article basically outlines how lame most people's passwords are and that the security on them is basically nonexistant.  If a villan who wants to get into your online visa account can do it in 2.1 seconds, what's the point of a password?

The article does go on to say that adding just one number and a capital letter can make your password much more secure.  Doing so in a 14-character random password would take forever (not really, but you get the idea) to crack.  Fourteen characters sound like a lot, but it can be done.  There are iPhone apps that will randomly produce passwords for you.


Another crafty way to keep your passwords in order (that I read about on another blog) is to have a password base (for instance, have a 14 character string, with numbers and caps) that you use for everything and then just add the first two letters of the website (or the last two or the first four, or however you do it) to your base.  So if I'm logging into visa.com and my password base is superHum0n99l@dy, I would make my visa one visuperHum0n99l@dy.  Get it?  Then there is only one strange 14-character password to remember, and you just tack some on for each website.  

A breakdown on character security is below, but what do you think?  How do you keep your passwords secure and organized?  If you get a chance, read the article...it's worth it.