Add a capital letter. Needs a number. Oops, you forgot a special character. That’s how it feels to create a tough password these days.
By now, you’re used to the login runaround, but how good are you at it? Put yourself to the test with a password game that even the creator admits he can’t beat.
The king of fun browser games
New York-based coder Neal Agarwal has made some pretty nifty sites I’ve shared in the past.
- Ten Years Ago takes you back to the website of your choosing on this day a decade ago. (CNET covered the fancy new camera in the iPhone 5S 10 years ago!)
- The Size of Space puts into context just how big asteroids, planets and galaxies are.
- Draw Logos from Memory is a good one when you need a quick brain break. (Click the little circles under each section to get more colors.)
Cybersecurity, but make it fun
Neal’s latest creation, The Password Game, challenges you to create a login meeting increasingly complex requirements. It starts easily enough — make it at least five characters, then include a number, uppercase letter and special character.
Rule No. 5 is the first one that threw me: “The digits in your password must add up to 25.” It only gets trickier from there. I don’t want to spoil anything, but I laughed out loud a few times!
Give it a whirl and let me know how far you get.