Unique Passcode: How to Make It for Your iPhone

How to Make a Unique Passcode For Your iPhone & Tips On How To Remember It

Disclaimer about a unique passcode: We strongly recommend to avoid using any of the passcodes mentioned in this article. They are made as an example and are already compromised by being posted online, therefore there are not safe choices.

Update! The website Motherboard warned that an unknown hacker or group of hackers started publishing the snippets of code that is allegedly used in GrayKey. The criminals are extorting money from the Grayshift company. The ransom they demand is too small (2 bitcoins) and this fact makes everyone believe that the leak never took place and this is just a scum job. Nevertheless, better safe than sorry. Secure your iPhone now and set the long, LONG passcode. We are glad we arrive in time with our how-to guide.

Here, you’ll find some useful information about security on your electronic devices: How to protect your iPhone and avoid unauthorized access.

We have already mentioned about the importance of using long passcodes/passwords to make them “unhackable”. We also mentioned that a good password should also contain letters, including capital ones, digits and special symbols like /, #, @ or ! . The problem is that most people don’t have a good memory for a chain of incomprehensible symbols and characters. They use stickers, Excel files or password managers like KeyChain or KeyPass. With the iPhone though, it is impossible to keep your unique password in any of these programs, unless you use a sticky note of course… but that method isn’t really secure.

We can help you to make a unique passcode and give you some tips on how to keep it safe.

First and foremost: make the passcode comprehensible! Make it comprehensible but only for you. We follow the guidelines for creating passwords revised by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The senior standards and technology adviser at NIST Paul Grass warns that the traditional guidance is well known for bad guys and only make it harder for users to remember.

Besides, humans are bad at picking random digits and symbols. Our subconscious will try to make us think of digits and symbols that are somehow relevant or familiar to us. Like our partners birthday dates or the landline phone number you had when you were a kid. Instead, NIST advises to focus on words and things, not digits and symbols.

Remember, computers can break digits, even the long chain of digits, but they cannot crack emotions.

All you must do is imagine any place or person that you love, admire, or care about. This will be your “secret”. Try to choose something that not so many people know about. For example, if you like Brad Pitt and have a huge collection of movies with him, everyone around you probably knows this information. Picking his name or “ihateangelinajolie” as a password would probably be a bad idea. So, give it some time and good thought and think about something that is important to you but also not known to others.

For example, I like the song “Set Fire to the Rain”. Let’s take the first line “I let it fall, my heart”. There are seventeen symbols in it minus the comma. I can arrange them in several different ways like iLetitFallmyHeart, writing every second word with a capital letter. I can also add digits like 842011 because this is the day when the song was released.

Or I can choose to use 1337 speak, and replace numbers with some of the letters. Then my password would look like iL3ti7f4llmyH34rt .

You can also choose several favorite things of yours and use the Person Action Object (PAO) Method. It was described by Joshua Foer in his book “Moonwalking with Einstein”.

• Pick an memorable place, such as “Yellowstone”.
• Pick a famous person or a celebrity you like or on the contrary hate (emotions are key), say, “Kim Kardashian”.
• Imagine a random action relating the two, like “ giving a manicure to a bear”
• Now combine these two thoughts into a mini-story: “Kim Kardashian gave a manicure to a bear in Yellowstone” This story becomes the mnemonic device to help you remember your passcode. Just imagine this hilarious situation well enough. Then pick up the first two letters from each word and combine them together.

In this situation our passcode would look like KiKagaamatoabeinYe. Replace some of the letters with digits… and you can end up with : KiKagaamat0ab3inY3.

You can also use digits and symbols to replace whole words, not just letters and encrypt a book or movie that has had some impact on you. I’ll pick “Flowers for Algernon”, for example. I personally don’t like the book, it’s too sad, but it has some sort of impact on me and can be used as a good potential password. I can alter the title a bit with symbols and numbers to come up with a password like: Fl0wer$4@lgern0n.

You can also concoct favorite places, names and movies. For example, [TV Show in Caps] + [Last Digit of Current Year] + [Special Character] + [Site Type in Small Case].

Making another example we can use : [Grace On Fire] + [2018] + [Asterisk] + [online Cinema Site] =GOF8*olcs.

We hope, that this article was useful and will help you come up with your own unique passcode. It can be very useful to come up with a unique, long secure password for your iPhone, iPad, Android phone or whatever device it may be. The important goal here is to keep our devices safe! Good luck!