BELLA VISTA — A seemingly innocuous area of the Internet gives me a lot of grief; two words in particular can make me shudder.

The first is password - it used to bring to mind the celebrity game show on television.

There are other meanings for password - might be something a spy would need, or one would be necessary for entrance to a shady location for nefarious activities. Not that I ever got to do anything cool like that.

The second word is log - it used to mean something that had fallen in the woods, whether it made a sound or not. Or perhaps we could sleep like one, although I never did understand that expression as I’m fairly sure logs don’t sleep.

The two words morphed into something else - the dreaded log-in and password screen.

It wasn’t too bad at first, just a log-in for the work computer. Then weadded a home computer.

Remembering two was not difficult.

Then I started shopping on-line. Now every site wants it’s own log-in and password - no problem.

I was smart, used Spot’s name for every password, my e-mail address for every log-in, and it was easy to remember. After all, how many people know my cat’s name is Spot?

As it turned out, this was wrong.

But security comes with a hefty price - my peace of mind.

There are so many different points to remember when creating a password that I frequently have to put it off until I’m calmer - and have more time.

I would think of something clever, write it down, and then the Web site would advise someone else already had it.

You would think with a name like mine it would be easy.

Apparently in the whole wide Web world, at least one other person has the same identical name - and they’re fast.

They always get my name before I can.

Now I have to keep a notebook, which contains many scribbled out passwords and log-in names, as I attempt to find the magic words no one else has thought of.

It’s wrong, I know, to have them all written down - if you believe the experts it’s right up there with putting your PIN number on a bank access card.

But I can’t remember them all.

Then I finally stumbled across something useful.

An article written by Farhad Manjoo (I did not make that up), for Slate Technology, with his suggestion on how to fix “your terrible, insecure passwords in five minutes” is sheer genius.

Choose a password that does not contain a readable word by using an acronym of a memorable sentence.

To create the acronym, begin with a phrase, or sentence, that can be remembered and use the first letter of each word. Mix up upper and lower case letters, and throw in symbols and numbers as well.

An example: My first cat was named Spot. Turn this into m1stCwNs - a password that cannot be broken by passwordguessing software. The experts say this software can guess most people’s passwords with just basic information, a truly terrifying thought.

And the best news - the experts agree that you don’t need a unique password for every Web site.

Use your strongest and most memorable password for your bank account and e-mail. Hijacked e-mail often contains passwords, especially if you’ve forgotten one and then changed it - the company sent the new one to your e-mail.

That bit of info made my heart race - I had even set up a file in my email to put the new passwords in.

So for three weeks I tried to come up with a really great sentence, something memorable yet interesting.

Shredded pages of too long, too short, too boring, and too-difficult-to remember sentences fill my trash bin.

So far, nada, zilch, zip, zero.

And how will I recall which letters to capitalize, or which numbers and symbols were used?

I’ll get my notebook.

***

Belloni is a reporter for The Weekly Vista covering, among other things, city government and education.

Douglas Grant’s column will return next week.

Opinion, Pages 6 on 10/14/2009

Comments

To report abuse or misuse of this area please hit the "Suggest Removal" link in the comment to alert our online managers.

Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.