Since about the 7th grade I have had the same variation of two passwords. The stem of the two is always the same, but depending on the password rules for whatever site I need an account, I will add numbers, symbols, or add a capital letter. If you were to figure out one of the passwords, you would have access to my social media accounts, bank account, PatriotWeb, etc. I would like to think that my passwords are clever, but an experienced hacker could probably crack my accounts.

The best password I ever had was at my internship last spring. We were told not to pick one word but to make our own acronym out of a phrase or something important. The password had to include capital letters, numbers, and a symbol. Although it wasn’t as easy to remember, just looking at the password would have shown a random combination and would not make sense to anyone but me. The chances of someone being able to crack that password would be much, much harder. I don’t know why I haven’t used that method of creating passwords since ending the internship. I think I am so used to the two I have always used.