Building a Better Password

As people age, it can become even harder to remember the countless passwords used in daily life. Dr. Dawn Mechanic-Hamilton, of the Penn Memory Center, offered some advice to residents at Beaumont at Bryn Mawr in February 2016.

She recommended beginning with a familiar sentence, such as one recalling a memorable address (“My first home was 6 Market Street”). By using the first letter of each word, capitalizing the first word and proper nouns, and including punctuation, you can create “Mfhw6MS!” a secure password by most standards.

About The Author

Terrence Casey

Terrence Casey is the editor of Making Sense of Alzheimer’s. He also manages communications for the Penn Memory Center, Whealthcare.org, and the Typical Day project. Before joining Dr. Karlawish, he worked for a variety of news organizations in Central Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia region. He can be reached at 215-898-9979 or terrence.casey@uphs.upenn.edu.

Making Sense of Alzheimer’s is a creative space for people to understand the past, present and future of Alzheimer’s disease. It is an evolving forum, a gallery of ideas, a museum without walls.

Making Sense of Alzheimer’s features stories and ideas that tackle the many and changing understanding of what Alzheimer’s disease is and how we try to make sense of it in our own lives. The voices of patients, scientists, writers, caregivers, students, singers, doctors, and artists are expressed here through words, images and sounds.

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