Legal Hacking Tip #2: Easy Method for Creating Passwords

Even the most security-friendly of us hate having to change our passwords every 3 months (or even less)! We curse the IT demons and figure out a way of beating the system and rearranging our current passwords, or other configurations of our childrens' birthdays. 

Here's another method of creating easy to remember yet strong passwords: Think of a favorite song; within that song, a favorite phrase; and then type out the first letters of each word of the phrase or some creative variation of this scheme. 

For example, let's say every morning when you get into work, you rock out to Jay-Z's "Roc Boys," from the movie, "American Gangster."And what gets you going is the line, "We the dope boys of the year, drinks is on the house." So when you sit down at your keyboard, jazzed up for whatever the day brings, you get to your Windows log on and type: "WTDBoftYDisontheHouse!" Long password, yes, but it gets you past security, and it types surprisingly fast because in your head, you're jamming out to the song.

Even shorter, "WTDBoftheY"... Throw in some numbers and punctuation: "111WTDBoftheY!"

Now, tell me what hacker would ever guess that kind of password? They might figure out your birthday, your kid's middle name, your anniversary, your high school crush, but this? Never. Unless you constantly rock it out loud on the bus to work every morning. But then you have other problems.

Legal Hacking Tip #1: Use del.icio.us

I'd never been the hugest fan of del.icio.us, the social bookmarking web site. For those not "in the know," del.icio.us is a barebones web site that allows you to bookmark (or "save") web pages online, so that you can access your bookmarks on any computer connected to the Internet. For example, say you're surfing the web at home, and you use del.icio.us to bookmark a link on landlord-tenant law. Then, the next day at work, if you want that bookmark, you just visit your del.icio.us web page, and there's the link for your reference.

You can also tag links, i.e., describe them in your own words. So you might tag that landlord-tenant law link as: landlordtenant, realproperty, work, ClientABC. (One huge drawback with del.icio.us is that your tags have to be one "word," i.e., no spaces.) 

Through del.icio.us, not only do you have a new tool in your mobile office, but you also have a catalog of all your links for "ClientABC." Or a library of useful links related to "landlordtenant." It helps organize things and also, if you're working with others, to share information. 

Also, you can mark private links as "do not share," so they're only available under your login. Good thing to note to protect client privacy over your research. 

There may be more robust bookmarking tools, but del.icio.us is stable (technically and corporately--they're owned by Yahoo!), easy to use, and the web standard. Try it out; it's usefulness will ultimately outweigh it's clunkiness.

(Photo courtesy of Flickr: cote)