password
An arbitrary string of characters chosen by a user or {system
administrator} and used to authenticate the user when he
attempts to log on in order to prevent unauthorised access to
his account.
A favourite activity among unimaginative {computer nerd}s and
{cracker}s is writing programs which attempt to discover
passwords by using lists of commonly chosen passwords such as
people's names (spelled forwards or backwards). It is
recommended that to defeat such methods passwords use a
mixture of upper and lower case letters or digits and avoid
proper names and real words. If you have trouble remembering
random strings of characters, make up an acronym like
"ihGr8trmP" ("I have great trouble remembering my password").
(1994-10-27)