Password quandary is . . . confusing

Of all the things required in a digital world, there's nothing as difficult as passwords.

Not that it's hard to come up with them – that's easy. We use our kids' names. Our pets. A favorite year. A band or team. A nickname. A combination.

The difficult thing is mixing them up and remembering what password goes with what website.

How many times have you gone to a website and been asked to put in a user name/password combination that you created months ago? You might be able to figure out the user name, but maybe not.

And what was the password?

Did they require a certain number of characters? Did they require you to mix numbers and letters? Use at least one alternate character? Did capital letters matter?

Unfortunately, we're not always smart. I know that because I read SplashData's annual list of most popular passwords. The conclusion was based on leaked data (which might explain why "Target" was a popular password).

The top choices? You can probably guess. They might be yours!

But first, do you think the creators of the TV game show "Password" are angry that their show title has become a tech term?

You remember "Password." It was on both ABC and CBS and the host on both networks was Allen Ludden, who was married to the ageless Betty White. It involved celebrities and civilians on teams, which alternated efforts to guess the "password." If, for instance, the password was "mountain," the clue-giver might say "Rocky," "hill" and "big" in an effort to help their teammate. The point values dropped as more clues were given.

The best part was the voice-over when the password was revealed. It was a whisper, despite the fact that they added it in post-production and the competitors couldn't hear it if it were yelled.

"The password is . . . mountain," the voice-over man would say.

It led to a generation of people using that as a catchphrase. "The password is . . . dork," they would say when someone embarrassed themselves. (I know. I heard it plenty.)

Then came the age of technology and the need for user names and passwords. For some of us, the game show legacy lives on . . . every time I sign into a website, I whisper "the password is . . . " and then say my password (and hear Mrs. Brad say "dork.")

But anyway, back to the most popular passwords. What would you think are the top two choices?

They are "123456" and "password." Clever, right?

Based on that, we can presume that the most popular user names are "123456" and "user name."

So what should we do? Password experts remind us that we should change our passwords frequently (my alternate choice is "Match Game," which is ironic). They tell us we should have a combination of characters. There should be a nonsensical nature to them.

Of course, they don't tell us how we're supposed to remember them.

For me, it's simple. I've kept the same password for years – and it's easy to remember. And it certainly isn't "123456" or "password."

Promise not to tell anyone?

The password is . . . AllenLudden.

Now you know, so it's time to go change all of them to "MatchGame!"

Brad Stanhope is a former Daily Republic editor. Reach him at bradstanhope@hotmail.com.