I am writing a document to send out to everyone in my organization with some tips on creating more secure passwords. A common problem is that with long passwords requirements, which we have, is that people tend use patterns or reuse large chucks of old passwords and simply replace a few characters, PassWordxxxx, changing the xxxx with each reset.

I have an idea to help people create complex, and seekingly random passwords and I want comments and suggestion on if it seems good.

Pick 2 unrelated airports from 2 random cities in the world and the final score of a sporting event.

In this example I’ll use Gatwick, London (LGW) and Juneau, Alaska (JNU) and game 7 of the ‘05 NBA Finals 74-81, the order is up to you. The password could then use those characters and various patterns. An example would be: lgwjnu7481JNULGW&$*!

&$*! is 7481+shift.

The airport codes could simply be replaced other things like the 2 letter codes from 2 random elements form the periodic table, the 2 letter codes for 2 different states, etc.

The numbers could be an area code for a random major city, a year that may have some significance, etc.

Another example would be wyaz1492AZWY!$(@

!$(@ is 1492+shift.

I know this seems like a lot but once you get it it’s actually a simple concept, and considering that it’s important to be secure it’s supposed to be somewhat complex.

UPDATE: (also added in comments)

I've been using LastPass for almost 10 years now, so I 100% agree that password managers are the way to go to manage the hundreds of different logins that we all have now.

I should have probably clarified this originally, but this suggestion is really for those passwords you can't (or at least shouldn't) store in a password app, like the master password for the password app itself, your network login for work, or the password for your own personal computer. These should also be the passwords that you should probably be changing more frequently as well!

Take a line or two from one of your favorite songs and then use the first letter (or corresponding symbol and/or number) of each syllable.

So for example

"Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" could be represented as

Awlotbsol @W1otbs0l aW10+b$01

etc etc

You may need to write it down at first, especially when you first create or change it and need to enter it twice. But after entering it a few times, all you need to do is remember the line of the song and you'll remember your password!

And for passwords you need to change frequently, just use the next line in the song as your next password!