8 principles for setting easy-to-remember and secure passwords for gamers

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The information first came to light in May, when experts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released a draft report discussing the assumptions behind passwords and how to create a 'strong' password. The draft was officially completed in June, and it provided a comprehensive list of dos and don'ts when creating a password.

1. Use a password that is at least 8 characters long. Simply because a password that is too short is easy to guess.
Have you ever been rejected because your password is too long? Yes, this is a problem that sometimes happens, and researchers at NIST want to change it. They say that service providers should allow passwords up to 64 characters long, and users should take advantage of this and use longer passwords to protect their accounts.

2. Keep your password to yourself. Don't share your password too easily, simply like that you can avoid account breaches, strange notifications. If you feel something strange happening in your account, immediately change your password!

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3. Use a password manager. Password managers, like LastPass, allow you to have strong, unique passwords for each individual account.

4. Skip the special characters, they're not that useful. Characters like @, $, and & are still recommended in passwords, but you don't need them anymore. They just make your password harder to remember, and they don't make your password stronger.

5. Don't use password hints. Password hints are a big deal, because they can also help strangers guess your password.

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6. Stop using personal questions to reset your password. The answers to questions like 'what was your first pet's name?' can be hard to remember, and there are now other ways to reset your password.

7. Avoid what NIST refers to as 'repeated or sequential passwords'. This means passwords like '12345678' or 'aaaaaaaaaaaa' should be avoided.

8. Don't use the name of the service you use as your password. If you're using 'AlexGmail' as your Gmail password, you're doing it wrong. Don't use your name, the name of the service you use, or anything that comes from the service or the user (like your date of birth).

Hopefully, with the 8 suggested principles above, gamers will be able to create strong and easy-to-remember passwords to protect their "darlings".

David Pac

Update 12 February 2025