Strong Password Ideas for a Phone

Your iPhone is an extremely powerful device that features several ways of protecting it from unauthorized access. Still, even if you use such biometric options as Face ID or Touch ID, you will need to enter your password to reactivate them if they are turned off for whatever reason. What’s more, a password is absolutely necessary when you turn on or reset your iPhone or update its software — it is, really, the cornerstone of your privacy protection.

 

Your iPhone allows you to choose between several phone password ideas that greatly differ in their reliability. These options are:

 

  • 4-Digit Numeric Code. There are only 10,000 combinations possible, which is absolutely not enough when it comes to the protection of your phone. What’s more, most people use very simple 4-digit sequences like ‘0000’, ‘1111’, ‘1234’, and ‘5555’ which are well known to cyber criminals
  • Custom numeric code. The number of possible combinations increases by a factor of 10 each time you add one more digit to your passcode: thus, a 6-digit number code offers your 1 million unique combinations. Still, if you use a sequence that is not truly random (like draw lines on your screen with codes like ‘147369’) your combination is really not that difficult to crack
  • Custom Alphanumeric Code. It is here where you can set up a truly reliable strong password i.e. the one has at least 12 characters in it and features letters (upper- and lower-case), digits, special symbols (like % and #), and punctuation marks. What’s more, such a password needs to be unique (never used before) and random.

Why Use a Strong Password

Strong password features a considerably greater number of possible combinations and, therefore, cannot be brute-forced (cracked by using each and every combination) in a reasonable time. For example, it takes a high-end computer about 9 million years to crack a unique 17-character sequence which puts up an impenetrable barrier against hackers.

Still, there are two major issues that need to be dealt with: how to create and how not to forget your strong combinations. Most-used strong password ideas for iPhone include:

 

  • Using the first letter of every word of your favorite song or poem while keeping all punctuation marks in place (Summertime, and the livin' is easy. Fish are jumpin’, and the cotton is high = S,atl'ie.Faj’,atcih)
  • Swapping two or more vowels: ‘e’ with ‘i’ and ‘i’ with ‘e’ — and so on. It is recommended that you use this method with meaningless phases (Beware the Jabberwock, my son! = Biwori thi Jobbirwack, my san!)
  • Take a phase (the closer it is to sheer nonsense the better) and delete the first 2 or 3 letters in every word of it (Just then flew down a monstrous crow, As black as a tar-barrel = t n w n strous w, ck -barrel)

 

Still, there is a major disadvantage to all these phone password ideas: although, in theory, they work great, in practice you more often than not find yourself staring into the screen trying to mentally delete (or swap) the letters from a nonsense phrase — and even the smallest mistake means that you have to go through this ordeal once again. What’s more, it is debatable whether these combinations are truly random as there is an underlying pattern in all of them.

Benefits of Random Password Generators

The best way to create a 100% unique secret combination that is undeniably random is to use a piece of software called a random password generator. These programs don’t have irrational likes and dislikes that are typical of people: every digit, symbol, letter and punctuation mark have equal chances of being used in your password — and in no order at all. If such a random combination is long enough, you get a truly hackproof password that is sure to protect your iPhone.

Unfortunately, we are back at the beginning: password ideas for iPhone that are based on mnemonics are difficult to use and of uncertain uniqueness. On the other hand, random-generated combinations that are truly unique are difficult to remember. So, what do you do? Write them down on a piece of paper only to find it missing at the most inconvenient moment possible?

Well, it looks like there is still a way to have your cake and eat it — provided you use Passwarden.

Passwarden – your ideal choice for iPhone

Download it right now!