Let’s play a game. Look at this string of characters for a minute and then see if you can recreate it elsewhere.

L等的玩游戏。 仔细看一下这个字符串，然后看看是否可以在其他地方重新创建它。

*#YokQ4Hw94W

*＃YokQ4Hw94W

How did you do? Unless you’re some sort of memory freak, I suspect you memorized a few characters at most, and possibly not even in the correct order.

你是怎么做的？ 除非您是某种记忆狂，否则我怀疑您最多只能记住几个字符，甚至可能记错了顺序。

It’s a password, by the way, autogenerated for me by LastPass. I don’t plan on using it anywhere but offer it as proof that password management faces a fundamental human challenge that we tend to gloss over when teasing people about their own horrifyingly bad passwords.

顺便说一下，这是一个密码，由LastPass为我自动生成。 我不打算在任何地方使用它，而是提供它作为证明，密码管理面临着人类的一项基本挑战，当人们取笑他们自己的可怕不良密码时，我们往往会掩盖这一挑战。

One of the world’s most popular passwords is still “123456.” In a recent study of over a billion credential records stolen by hackers over the years, researcher Ata Hakçıl found a shockingly small number of truly unique passwords and, in a group of over 165 million, 7 million were, you guessed it, “123456.”

全球最受欢迎的密码之一仍然是“ 123456”。 在最近几年对黑客窃取的十亿份凭证记录的最新研究中，研究员AtaHakçıl发现了数量惊人的真正唯一的密码，在一个超过1.65亿的人群中，您猜到有700万个是“ 123456”。 ”

A 2017 Pew Study found that 86% of people report memorizing the passwords they use most often. That should be encouraging news, but the reality is people keep passwords simple or reuse the same password for multiple accounts because they cannot memorize more complex ones. That same study, by the way, found that roughly half of Americans write down their passwords and 24% keep them in a note on their PC.

皮尤(Pew) 2017年的一项研究发现，有86％的人报告记住了他们最常使用的密码。 那应该是令人鼓舞的消息，但是现实是人们将密码保持简单，或者将相同的密码用于多个帐户，因为他们无法记住更复杂的密码。 顺便说一句，同一项研究发现，大约一半的美国人写下了他们的密码，而24％的人将其记录在PC上的便条纸中。

把事情简单化 (Keep it simple)

In addition to simplistic passwords like “monkey” and 123456,” it’s not uncommon for people to incorporate personal information in their passwords to help them remember them. They put their children’s names, birthdays, addresses, whatever can be readily recalled. The obvious pitfall here is that hackers can more easily figure out these passwords and, if they already have your email and any other triangulating information, use it to guess your password and log into your accounts.

除了诸如“ monkey”和“ 123456”之类的简单密码，人们在密码中加入个人信息以帮助他们记住密码的情况并不少见。 他们把孩子的名字，生日，住址，随便记得。 此处明显的陷阱是，黑客可以更轻松地找出这些密码，并且，如果他们已经拥有您的电子邮件和任何其他三角信息，则可以使用它来猜测您的密码并登录到您的帐户。

If you’re wondering if hackers already have your email address, I suggest you look at “Have I Been Pwned.” It’s an online repository of virtually all the email addresses that have been accessed/stolen in recent years. (Spoiler alert: You have been pwned.)

如果您想知道黑客是否已经拥有您的电子邮件地址，建议您查看“ 我是否被拥有” 。 这是一个在线存储库，几乎包含了近年来已访问/被盗的所有电子邮件地址。 (剧透警报：您已被伪造。)

Ultimately, the best passwords will always be secret and, especially, unguessable. The latter implies complexity and that leads to memory problems.

最终，最好的密码将永远是机密的，尤其是不可猜测的。 后者意味着复杂性，并导致内存问题。

我们如何记忆 (How we memorize)

The more I thought about our password problem, the more I realized that if we could solve some of our memory shortcomings, many of us might not have a problem mentally juggling a handful of unguessable passwords.

我对密码问题的思考越深，我越意识到，如果我们能够解决一些内存不足的问题，那么我们很多人在心理上可能会遇到一些难以猜测的密码问题。

Memorization is something we all do. We commit information to long term and short-term memory on a regular basis. My own memory fails mostly on the short-term side. People tell me their name and, unless I work on committing it to memory by repeating it in my head a dozen or more times, I immediately forget it.

背诵是我们所有人要做的。 我们定期将信息提交给长期和短期记忆。 我自己的记忆力大多在短期方面失败。 人们告诉我他们的名字，除非我反复在脑海中反复敲击几次以将其记住，否则我会立即忘记它。

Aside from those with Eidetic (or photographic) memory, most of us suffer from what’s commonly known as The Forgetting Curve.” In a series of tests in the late 1800s, German Psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus discovered a pattern in his own memory retention, which was defined by rapid memory loss in the first sixty minutes, lesser loss after that. By the following day two-thirds of what Ebbinghaus sought to memorize was gone. Ebbinghaus, who is also credited with defining “The Learning Curve,” found unsurprisingly that he could memorize poems more easily than random word and letter groups. I think he should almost be credited with doing the first password memory tests.

除了那些具有审美(或摄影)记忆的人之外，我们大多数人还遭受着通常所说的“遗忘曲线”的困扰。” 在1800年代后期的一系列测试中，德国心理学家赫尔曼·埃宾格豪斯(Hermann Ebbinghaus)在自己的记忆保持中发现了一种模式，这种模式的定义是在开始的60分钟内记忆力Swift下降，此后记忆力下降较小。 第二天，埃宾豪斯想要记住的三分之二都消失了。 埃宾豪斯(Ebbinghaus)也因定义“学习曲线”而闻名，毫不奇怪地发现，与随机单词和字母组相比，他更容易记住诗歌。 我认为他应该被认为是进行首次密码记忆测试的人。

更好的内存，更好的密码 (Better Memory, Better Passwords)

“I think the problem with passwords is that requirements differ from one site to another, and you have to keep changing them…. it’s no wonder people have problems,” Elizabeth Loftus, Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine, told me via email.

“我认为密码的问题在于，一个站点到另一个站点的要求有所不同，您必须不断更改它们……。 难怪人们有问题。”加州大学欧文分校的杰出教授伊丽莎白·洛夫特斯(Elizabeth Loftus)通过电子邮件告诉我。

Professor Loftus, who studies, among other things, psychology and cognitive sciences, believes people can, with enough practice, memorize even the most complicated material but when I asked her about the kind of practice that might lead to a mental vault of complex passwords, she told me, “There is no one definition of practice that fits everyone.”

Loftus教授研究心理学和认知科学等知识，他相信人们可以通过足够的实践来记住最复杂的材料，但是当我向她询问可能导致复杂密码的心理保险库的那种实践时，她告诉我：“没有一种适合所有人的定义。”

It occurred to me that I have, somehow, committed to memory at least three significantly complex passwords that contain unpronounceable collections of letters, cases, numbers, and special characters. I did not use any other method than sheer repetition.

在我看来，我已经以某种方式致力于存储至少三个非常复杂的密码，其中包含字母，大小写，数字和特殊字符的不发音集合。 除了重复之外，我没有使用任何其他方法。

There had to be another way to break the cycle of people creating abysmal passwords over the fear of forgetting complex ones.

由于担心忘记复杂的密码，必须有另一种方法来打破人们创建糟糕的密码的周期。

“The number one argument for memorizing passwords is not security, but brain exercise and mental resilience so people don’t suffer the fear you mention,” said educator, author, and memory technique expert Anthony Metivier via email.

教育家，作家和记忆技术专家安东尼·梅蒂维埃(Anthony Metivier)通过电子邮件说：“记住密码的第一要点不是安全性，而是大脑锻炼和心理适应能力，因此人们不必承受您提到的恐惧。”

Metivier had been teaching people and talking about memory for almost a decade and this year wrote The Victorious Mind: How to Master Memory, Meditation and Mental Well-Being.

Metivier一直在教人和谈论记忆，将近十年了。今年，他撰写了《胜利的心：如何掌握记忆，冥想和心理健康》 。

While Metivier’s techniques are not specifically designed for password management, he told me that the same mnemonic (memory devices that aid in information retention and retrieval) skills used to build sharp thinking and memory skills can be used to memorize complex passwords.

尽管Metivier的技术不是专门为密码管理而设计的，但他告诉我，可以使用用于记忆敏锐的思维和记忆技能的相同的记忆(有助于信息保留和检索的存储设备)技能来记忆复杂的密码。

Metivier outlined for me a handful of steps anyone can use to commit good passwords to memory.

Metivier为我概述了任何人都可以用来将良好密码提交到内存的几个步骤。

He suggests starting with an alphabetical system. “For example, for every letter of the alphabet, you want an instant image that comes to mind. You want it to be concrete and specific. Ideally, it will be unchanging.”

他建议从字母系统开始。 “例如，对于字母表中的每个字母，您都想得到一个即时的图像。 您希望它是具体而具体的。 理想情况下，它将保持不变。”

The specificity is, apparently important. You can’t just associate the letter “A” with an Apple. “It is Steve Jobs biting into one of his Apple computers. B is ball, but not just any ball. It is Michael Jordan with a ball, etc.”

特异性显然很重要。 您不能仅将字母“ A”与苹果相关联。 “是史蒂夫·乔布斯(Steve Jobs)咬着他的一台苹果电脑。 B是球，而不仅仅是任何球。 是迈克尔·乔丹(Michael Jordan)持球等。”

The science agrees with this: most memory starts with association, especially connecting new information you do not know with something you do know. In this instance, the construction of the new password is unknown to me, but I certainly know “apples,” “Steve Jobs,” “Michael Jordan” and “basketball.” Strong associations help build stronger neural nets in your brain.

科学对此表示赞同：大多数记忆都是从关联开始的，尤其是将您不知道的新信息与您所知道的东西联系起来。 在这种情况下，我不知道新密码的构造，但是我当然知道“苹果”，“史蒂夫·乔布斯”，“迈克尔·乔丹”和“篮球”。 强大的联想有助于在大脑中建立更强大的神经网络。

The second part of Metivier’s guidance is a little bit more complex: A nearly 200-year-old memory system commonly known as “The Major Method” that revolves, in part, around converting numbers into images.

Metivier指南的第二部分稍微复杂一些：已有近200年历史的存储系统(通常称为“ 主要方法 ”)部分围绕着将数字转换为图像的工作。

Last you enter your Memory Palace. If that sounds eerily like the BBC’s Sherlock Holmes’ Mind Palace, that’s because it is. If you think of a Mind Palace as a house full of rooms for all your thoughts and, in the case of Sherlock, deductions, the Memory Palace is really a room for specific memories.

最后，您进入记忆宫。 如果听起来像BBC的《 福尔摩斯心灵宫殿》，那是因为。 如果您将心灵宫殿想像成一间容纳所有思想的房间，而对于福尔摩斯来说，就是推论，那么记忆宫殿实际上就是一个可以保存特定回忆的房间。

The idea is that visualization and specificity can help you retrieve memories by, essentially, seeing them as something other than what they are: complex passwords.

这个想法是，可视化和特殊性可以从本质上将内存视为不同于它们的东西：复杂的密码，从而帮助您检索内存。

“If your password is 8dfER234,” said Metivier, “then you would bring a room to mind. In the corner have a snowman for 8, Dean Cain and Fred Flintstone in a battle with a giant Einstein, etc.”

“如果您的密码是8dfER234，” Metivier说，“那么您将有个机会。 在角落，有一个雪人，可容纳8人，迪恩·凯恩(Dean Cain)和弗雷德·弗林特斯通(Fred Flintstone)，在与巨型爱因斯坦的战斗中，等等。

Even with these techniques, you’d still need to review it all multiple times to commit the password to long term memory. Even so, Metivier believes “the Memory Palace technique allows for scale, which means hundreds of passwords can be memorized.”

即使使用这些技术，您仍然需要多次检查所有密码，才能将密码提交到长期内存中。 即便如此，Metivier相信“ Memory Palace技术可以扩展规模，这意味着可以存储数百个密码。”

回忆 (Making memories)

Image, word, and mind mansion, I mean, mind palace, associations sound like valid, if somewhat inscrutable memory methods, and, as I noted earlier, I memorized my handful of lengthy passwords a different way.

图像，文字和思维府邸，我的意思是，思维宫殿，联想听起来像是有效的，虽然有些难以理解的存储方法，而且，正如我之前指出的，我以不同的方式记住了我的一些冗长的密码。

Every day, I log into my work computer with a password assigned to me by my company. It’s 12 characters long and, like most good passwords, has special characters, different cases, and no real words in it. After a couple of weeks of looking at a piece of paper where I’d written it down, I one day realized I knew it by heart.

每天，我都会使用公司分配给我的密码登录工作计算机。 它长12个字符，并且像大多数好的密码一样，具有特殊字符，不同的大小写，并且其中没有真实的单词。 在看了几周我写下来的纸之后，有一天我意识到自己是内心地知道它的。

I wondered if I could accelerate that process. Remember the LastPass password (*#YokQ4Hw94W) from above? I started by looking at it once and seeing if I could retype it in another window. I managed to recall just 4 out of the 12 characters. Next, I looked at the original and then retyped it 17 times in a row. When I opened a new window to retype it without looking, I recreated it perfectly. On a second try, I missed one character. An hour later I could recreate all but two characters (including position and cases).

我想知道我是否可以加快这一进程。 还记得上面的LastPass密码(*＃YokQ4Hw94W)吗？ 我先看一次它，看看是否可以在另一个窗口中重新输入它。 我设法召回了12个字符中的4个。 接下来，我查看了原件，然后连续将其重新键入了17次。 当我打开一个新窗口以重新输入而不看时，便完美地创建了它。 再试一次，我错过了一个角色。 一个小时后，我可以重新创建除两个字符外的所有字符(包括位置和案例)。

The next morning, I could remarkably retype all but one character. I bet that if I kept practicing, I would soon permanently commit it to memory.

第二天早上，除了一个字符，我可以重新输入所有字符。 我敢打赌，如果我继续练习，我很快就会将其永久保存在记忆中。

记住这一点 (Remember this)

Our fear of forgetting strong passwords creates an enormous security risk for our personal information and anyone digitally connected to us. I’m not arguing you memorize all your passwords. If you use a password manager, you might only need to memorize one (though most of us have one or more other services and systems that do not accept these password managers auto-fill techniques).

我们担心忘记强密码会给我们的个人信息以及与我们建立数字联系的任何人带来巨大的安全风险。 我不是在说您记住所有密码。 如果使用密码管理器，则可能只需要记住一个即可(尽管我们大多数人都拥有不接受这些密码管理器自动填充技术的一项或多项其他服务和系统)。

Even Metivier isn’t a password memorization absolutist. “For security reasons, any entrepreneur and certainly most individuals should be using a password manager backed up with a written master password locked up somewhere safe. Even some of the best memory champions and experts still forget and no one can afford to get hacked when it’s so readily avoidable.”

甚至Metivier也不是密码记住专家。 “出于安全原因，任何企业家，当然也应该是大多数个人，都应该使用密码管理器作为后盾，并在安全的地方将其写入主密码。 即使是一些最好的内存拥护者和专家仍然忘记了，而且在如此容易避免的情况下，没人能承受被黑客攻击的风险。”