We all have that one password that we just won’t let go of. However, with the latest case of identity thefts (Gawker/Wikileaks fiasco anyone?), it just gets more likely that one day you will be hacked. My password at Gawker’s Lifehacker was only one character shy of my Google/Facebook and other sites. I survived by the skin of my teeth.

One way to ensure your safety is to have passwords that look like g)(^&%((<, and although tools like LastPass make using those passwords easier, its a pain for sites that you access all the time like Facebook or GMail. Lets bolten up your existing password.

Lets assume your password is guessthis. You currently have a password strength of 9%. The scores I am presenting here are courtesy of the great Password Meter.

1. Add a backquote or tilde (the key next to “1″ in most keyboards) to the beginning. Making it:

1

`guessthis

You’ve tripled its strength.

2. Capitalize the first letter.

1

`Guessthis

Now you’ve got a password that scores 61%. Six times stronger.

3. Add a smiley at the end.

1

`Guessthis:)

This brings your score to 91%.

4. Replace character’s such as ‘i’ to ’1′, or ‘s’ to ‘$’. This means that you mentally store the new password in much the same way as the old password.

1

`Guessth1s:)

A simple change of ‘i’ to 1 results in an industry strength 100% score for a password.

Users rarely make full use of larger characters sets in forming passwords. For example, hacking results obtained from a MySpace phishing scheme in 2006 revealed 34,000 passwords, of which only 8.3% used mixed case, numbers, and symbols. – Wikipedia

C’mon people! Make your passwords stronger. Check your current password strength using the friendly password meter from http://www.passwordmeter.com

If you have any other tips, let me know in the comments.