verushka70

I have screwed myself over numerous times, waiting until the last minute until a mandatory work password change... on a Friday. Then I come back to work on Monday and I can't recall what the hell I changed it to.

This time, I had 5 days to spare, so I did it yesterday. And when my work email forces me to change my password, then I change all my other email passwords, too.

To make things easier (because we have to enter our passwords at work; we can't use authentication apps, although after we sign-in the first time, we can use our ID badges to swipe in on work computers), I tend to use the same password for all my accounts.

I know: that sounds terrible - but I change the phrase to Leetspeak, add a capital letter or two, and add different prefixes and suffixes, based on which email accounts.

So, what I do is, I pick a 2 or 3 word phrase. Let's say I saw a robin on the electrical wire in my yard, when I went to my car this morning. Or maybe I'm currently reading or writing fic in a particular fandom &/or with a particular character.

So, the phrase for the robin on the wire would be robinwire.

Or if I'm currently reading lots of due South fic, it might be duesouth... or if I'm reading or writing some bad!Fraser fic, it might be 'badFraser' or 'badBenton'.

With Leetspeak, this then becomes R0b!nw1r3. (zeroes for Os, exclamation points or 1s for the letter i, the number 3 for Es, sometimes @ for the letter A in a word, $ for the letter S, etc.

Or it becomes Du3$0uth or b@dFr@s3r or b@dB3nt0n.

Then, for the specific Gmail account attached to this DW (not my 'real email'), for example, the initials are VK.

So then I add those initials as a prefix to the password, and it becomes vkR0b!nw1r3 or vkDu3$0uth or vkb@dFr@s3r or vkb@dB3nt0n.

Lastly, I add a suffix to it.

If it's a Gmail account, I add a suffix of gm; if it's an old Hotmail account, I add the suffix hm. The password then becomes vkR0b!nw1r3gm or vkR0b!nw1r3hm - or vkDu3$0uthgm, vkb@dB3nt0ngm, or vkb@dFr@s3rhm.

Or, for AO3, the suffix would be a03 (with a zero for the O) or @03 (with @ for the A, and zero for the O).

So then it becomes vkR0b!nw1r3a03 or vkDu3$0utha03 or vkb@dB3nt0na03 or vkb@dFr@s3ra03.

(If it were for an Outlook account, I'd make that into a two letter suffix: ol for OutLook. Almost any one word, multi syllable hostname can be made into a 2 letter suffix... Target becomes tg, Amazon becomes az, Aldi becomes ad... etc. - you get the picture, hopefully.)

Now I have a seriously strong password that's really hard to guess - and hard to break with brute force password cracking programs - and it's easy for me to remember.

That way, I don't have to write it down.! And, with repetition across multiple accounts, it becomes kinda cemented in my brain.

Then in 72 or 90 days (or however frequently my job forces me to change my password; I can't recall), I'll change it to something else related to what I'm doing or what I saw or experienced.

Like maybe a squirrel I saw in my yard, or a swallow I saw the night before, or an Eastern Promises fic I'm reading/writing ($qu!rr3ly@rd, or Sw@770w with 7s for Ls, or 3@st3rnpr0m!s3s - then add the prefix vk, or my RL initials, then add the suffix of gm or hm or a03, etc.). This kind of patterned password changing across multiple accounts has made my life so much easier. Seriously.

And never, ever change your work password(s) on a Friday - unless you work the weekend, so you have some days to practice the new password(s)!

I hope this helps people! It has helped me a lot.