If you subscribe to several Internet web services, you probably have had to choose a number of passwords. Later on, when you come back to one of those web sites, you may have forgotten the password you chose, or you may have to find the bit of paper on which you wrote the password and then misplaced. After such an episode, you may have decided to use a single password for all; bad idea! Somebody who obtains this password could then access all your web site accounts.

There's a simple solution ...

1. Choose an 8-letter password that you won't forget.

Example : "solution" (without the quotes).

2. Every time you subscribe to a web service, take note of two of the letters in the web site's name. For the purposes of the examples here, I have chosen the first two letters of the web site's name.

Example : You visit "hotmail.com"; the chosen letters are "h" and "o".

3. Insert these two letters in the password that you have chosen, always at the same places, and in upper case.

Examples :

For "hotmail.com", "solution" becomes "soluH"+ "tionO" which gives "soluHtionO"

For "yahoo.ca", "solution" becomes "soluY" + "tionA" which gives "soluYtionA"

For "microsoft.ca"", "solution" becomes "soluM" + "tionI" which gives "soluMtionI"

Now, let's suppose that you created an account, several months ago, on the web site "gazette.ca"" and that you can't remember the password that you chose back then.

No problem; you know what your personal password formula is  :

"solution" + "GA" which gives "soluG" + "tionA"
and so the password is "soluGtionA".

The two letters from the web site name that you decide to always select can be the first two, the last two, or one of each - it's completely up to you. All you have to do is always select these letters from the same places in the web site name. For added security, you can add one or two numbers to the password, always in the same places.

And from now on, you will never lose a password.

Even if someone discovers your unique password (as in "solution"), that person will still not be able to access your accounts because that person will not know where in the password you add the web site's letters. Furthermore, that person will not know whether you chose the first letters in the web site name, the last letters, or a mixture of letters. They probably won't even know that you use this approach!

Finally, you will never again have to find a lost slip of paper on which you've written a password.