Handmade passwords

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Humans are known to be bad at real randomness.
Electronics is hard to validate; everything could be hacked, or even cleverly set up to steal your password right from the start.

So, how about an easy, purely manual approach?

How to do it

You need a piece of paper, a pen, and a normal six-sided die.

Write down this 6x6 grid of letters and digits:

1

2

3

4

5

6

1

a

b

c

d

e

f

2

g

h

i

j

k

l

3

m

n

o

p

q

r

4

s

t

u

v

w

x

5

y

z

0

1

2

3

6

4

5

6

7

8

9

Roll a die twice, first for row, then for column: There you have the next character for your password.
Repeat until you have the password length you want.
Done!

How to remember it

Remembering such a password requires practice.
The following routine should work:

  • Keep it on a piece of paper initially.

  • Use the password on a daily basis.

  • Type as much of the password as you remember, read off the rest from the paper.

  • Repeat until you find that you don’t need the paper anymore.

Mythology

Many people recommend adding upper-case letters or special characters.
The idea is to increase the number of possible password, and it makes sense if password length is limited.
With today’s system, password length is rarely limited, and then making the password longer is easier than remembering WhiCh lEttERs oF yOuR PasswoRd ArE UpPeR-case.

Last updated: 14 Jul 2024 23:44