How can we set and remember easy-to-remember but hard-to-guess passwords?

Every day we deal with a lot of usernames: we have to register or log in to various websites, we have to enter passwords to withdraw money from our bank cards, we have to connect to the wireless network, etc.

Given the frequency and importance of passwords, a good password should be both easy to remember and hard to guess. So what factors should we consider when setting a password? More importantly, how do we remember it? Here are some tips for setting passwords that will help you.

Don't use one password for everything.

The downside of using the same password for everything is obvious: as soon as one password is cracked, the rest of your information is compromised as well.

For example, if the mutual fund company you work for has a security breach and all your usernames or passwords are exposed, and you happen to use the same information to log in to Amazon online banking, not only your mutual fund account, but all your online banking accounts and credit card information stored on Amazon will be exposed as well.

Remembering multiple different passwords with uniform rules.

One might say that it's a lot of pressure to remember if every password is different! But as long as all of your passwords follow the same rules, you don't have to worry about this at all.

First choose a basic password and then, depending on the service, add a number of other elements to this password according to certain rules. For example: the basic password + the first two consonants of the site name + the first two vowels of the site name.

For example, the basic password is "asdf", then the password to log into Yahoo is ASDFYHAO, the landing eBay is ASDFBYEA. essentially the same, but a little easier is to use the same few letters (such as the first letter of their own name, or favorite number) to do the beginning. Overlay the first three letters of the site name. This way, my Amazon login password is GMLT10AMA and Lifehacker's password is GMLT10LIF.

To be even more secure, you can also add a few unknown letters in the middle, such as your own middle name. Before you pick the rules for generating your final password, one thing you should keep in mind is that while the major websites may have slightly different requirements for passwords, one guideline definitely applies - a good password should be at least 8 characters long, and ideally contain both letters and numbers.

Want to be more secure? "Surround" the password with a symbol that the site allows, like #GMLT10LIF#.