You can use words as passwords. If you choose six-letter word, there will be 26^6 or 300 million words are possible in the English language. Even 300 million is not a big number for the computer. It will check them out in a few seconds. The scrabble dictionary lists about 20000 meaningful 6-letter words. So, the cracking problem is further become easy. If you choose predictable words, a human will very easily crack the passwords. Datagenetics .com says one out of every six PIN is either 1234 or 1111.
How to pick a unpickable password? Longer password from larger alphabet is the best choice. The normal keyboard has 90 characters. Choose a twenty-character password from it. The fraudster has to try 90^20 possible passwords. Even a high-end computer will take 10000000000000000 times the age of the universe to crack the password.
If you choose a password like "HsgP58#AB4dfe%", how will you remember? The verdict is, choose a longer password from 90 characters, but you should be able to remember it.
One method to create a strong password
1. Take a simple sentence
SHE LOOKS LIKE ANGEL
2. Remove n number of characters from each word from the end.
let n = 2
SLOOLIANG
3. Now, replace some alphabet with special characters.
o =%
L=@
G=9
We get,
SL%%@1an9
Remember the method. Write down the process. Keep it safe.
You can use such a complicated method for online money transactions. Remember, even banks cannot find out your passwords and PINs.