The MD5 password hash algorithm is "no longer considered safe" by the original software developer, a day after the leak of more than 6.4 million hashed LinkedIn passwords.

Mnemonic passwords generally stink. A random sequence of letters, digits and punctuation is more secure—just don't write down your passwords, like the knucklehead antagonist does in Ready Player One!

Just about every password manager comes with its own random password generator, some of which are better than others. In most cases, though, the program uses what's called a pseudo-random algorithm.