Take Control of Your Passwords, 4th Edition

Introduction

Think of a card, any card. Now, keep that card in mind and think of another. Repeat until you’ve picked 16 cards—but make sure your selection includes all four suits, at least one ace and one face card, and no two instances of the same card. Remember the whole set, because I’m going to ask you to name them all tomorrow…

I’m joking, of course. But have you ever noticed that when magicians pull someone out of an audience to help with a trick, they never make such complicated requests? It’s unreasonable to ask someone to create a meaningless string of numbers and letters, remember it indefinitely, and produce it on demand.

But websites, banks, and network administrators make exactly that request of us almost daily. Want to buy something ...