Password help. How the hell do I do this?

[BarbaraofSeville]

I'm not a stupid person honestly, in fact I'm very intelligent.

But I've just come back from leave to find that my password has expired and my work has made the requirements much more complicated and I've locked myself trying to change it.

So I have to go into the office to be present in person for a meeting I can't join online because I can't log in but I'll still need a new password.

The new rules say it needs to be 14 characters long with an unspecified number of special characters. The IT help desk work about 4 hours a day and take hours to respond so I won't get help from them anytime soon.

Of course im not allowed to write it down but I'm perimenopausal and almost certainly have ADHD so the chances of me remembering a random string of 14+ letters numbers and symbols is approximately zero.

Any suggestions? Of course this could be the trigger for me to quit a desk based job that I've come to hate and retrain as a truck driver, which I've always fancied.

I watched a programme about password hacking and remembering passwords , he suggested random words . How about your method of getting to work , colour of work chair , and what you drink at work followed by a year that means something to you so carbluecoffee#2014 so for you easy to remember .

When I had to change passwords every month(?), I used to use countries/towns/resort where I'd holidayed and the month/year.

These days I have a password manager on my phone (which has face recognition enabled as well as a password).

I think I've been using 1Password for at least a decade.

Good luck

Pick a random word. Capitalise the first letter. Replace one letter in it with a special character. Add a date you will remember - nothing too obvious - at the end to make the total number of characters up to 14.

Example:

My random word is strawberry. The date is my parents' wedding anniversary.

Str@wberry2608

For a password that long you need a phrase that means something to you - something like "dogsandpuppiesarecute" and change a couple of the letters for numbers, eg the o for an 0.

How would anyone even know if you wrote it down??

They also recommend sentences that you abbreviate, you could use a film or a book you love? So for example, if you’re favourite film is Titanic, you can try something like T!t@nic1997!

Does that help?

You can write it down backwards.

use a password that you tend to use, add the company name or job title and swap some letters to special characters
s3ville@cc0unts for example

Also, you can write it down. They're hardly going to find out

This helps me: I think of a sentence to remember, e.g.

All passwords are really shite and do I really need to remember all of them?

which becomes (using 1st letters) Apars&dIrn2raot?

You can paste a number at the end which you +1 each time you are required to update your password.

Your MN username is more than 14 characters long. You can presumably remember that? Do something with that.

Famous quotation 2Bornot2Bthatisthe? Or similar.

(I see it's already been suggested in the time I was typing :)

I use a sentence with a number in it related to what the password is for. Use the first letter of each word and capitalise the first and last word.

For example -
This is my first half term at college = Tim1htaC
My Netflix account has four family member accounts = Mnah4fmA

Occasionally it may need a special character too so I just add a exclamation or make the sentence into a question so a question mark can be added.

*not real passwords!

I see I cross posted with others suggesting similar!

This is also how I remember my car registration for those parking meters. The more ridiculous the better.

Use a password manager. I have bitwarden. It's free, I only have to remember one password to get into it (a long one so it's super safe, it's a phrase with numbers and punctuation added). It generates strong passwords for you or remembers the ones you choose and autofills for you.

Doesn't help with your immediate situation I'm afraid.

I use LastPass.

Really? I have no idea what it is. It's saved on my phone.

Well firstly, no one’s going to know if you write it down, secondly, puck a random word and separate every letter with a special character then tag your age on the end. So as an example my word is animal so my password would be a£n£I£m£a£l51. Easy

What three words of important personal places you won't forget
Or a pattern on the keyboard so the letters a random but the pattern is memorable

Choose three random words and add some special characters at the end. Make the words memorable by coming up with a mental image to go with them. Washingtreecup789! For example.

Use a password manager. So much easier and safer.

@TheBikiniExpert you've no idea what your Mumsnet username is? What if someone is talking directly at you like this? You wouldn't know they were and you would just breeze on by?

I've just realised that there is no point to this post as you won't know it's for you!

My mum always has the name of the oldest grandchild and then their age at that moment.

So PatrickJamesSmith24

Whoops

and the classic @ sign for an a

P@trickJ@mesSmith24