a few other common ones are something to do with your name, a relatives birthday, or your birthday. The best advice I read for finding a password is choosing a passage out of a book or such and using that.
Throw in random, non-letter characters and random caps; make it 12+ total characters, and it's virtually hack-proof.
A good practice is to have at least one capital letter, number and special character in your password. The longer the better. And change it every once in awhile, even if by only one or two characters. It's really not as daunting as it sounds and actually goes a long way towards security. If nothing else, you want to get in this habit for stuff that really matters, like your online banking. Most 'hacking' is the result of weak passwords [and a broad surface area for attack].
the one thing you want to watch when making a password, and even security protocol, is making it to difficult to remember. One problem they have found is making it too difficult and in return people writing down their passwords.
The school I go to forces you to have a password with a letter, number, and special character in it.... works well. I know some people where I work spell words out with numbers... like "c0mput3rs" or something to that effect...
that's what happens to me. I make some kick butt password and then the next day I'm sending the email saying I forgot my password.
what I do is put two NFL players. take the first name of one, and the last name or another, then put a number at the end that neither player has. makes it pretty easy for me to remember one of my passwords (that i've since changed) was jamesfranklin14 seems to work for me well enough and i know my system well enough to remember my passwords
All the more reason to use a third-party password manager. Something like KeePass on Windows or 1Password on OS X and iPhone. They usually integrate with your apps, normally browsers, and give you both password generation and storage capability. And we're talking STRONG passwords, too. The best part is that you don't even have to remember what the password is, because the app stores it for you, and you simply bring it up as needed. By the way, this article should be required reading before going on the Internet.
It just shows the lack of education in the classics that "swordfish" wasn't on the list. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IrCgCKrv8U"]YouTube- Horse Feathers Password Scene[/ame]
