How Secure Are Your Passwords?
 I will admit to reading the AARP newsletter. Harry says I can blame it on him. He's retired and happily married to a MUCH younger woman (me). ;-D
Anyway, I do find some really good stuff there, like this article on the worst passwords. They're easy for hackers to figure out. Here's the list: - password (The most popular password and most easily hacked.)
- 123456
- 12345678
- qwerty (The top left letters on the keyboard)
- abc123 (The fifth most common password.)
- monkey (The experts can't figure why this is popular, but it is.)
- 1234567
- letmein
- trustno1
- dragon
- baseball
- 111111
- iloveyou
- master
- sunshine
- ashley
- bailey
- passw0rd (Changing the "o" to a zero doesn't help.)
- shadow
- 123123
- 654321
- superman
- qazwsx (a top-to-bottom letter sequence on the keyboard)
- michael
- football
If you recognize one of these, do me a favor and change it. Please. Using them will significantly increase your risk of identity theft and other bad stuff. How to make your passwords safer: Make them long (at least 12 keystrokes), mix `em up with upper- and lowercase letters, spaces, underscores, symbols and conscious misspellings. Also, use different passwords for your different online accounts and CHANGE THEM every 90 days or so. Microsoft has a web page dedicated to helping you create strong passwords. Go here to check it out. I have so many passwords that I can't possibly remember them all, so I keep them in a password-protected Word file. Of course, I made that password especially difficult and named the file with something that has nothing to do with passwords (and didn't call it "Passwords"). Being of an age to read the AARP newsletter, I sure hope I don't forget THAT password. _______________________________________________________________ Arts Funding Opportunities For individuals and organizations, I love the Foundation Center online to help clients find great grant opportunities. Here is a sampling of opportunities: Princess Grace Foundation Invites Applications for Emerging Artist Award Programs in Theater, Dance, and Film
Support in the form of scholarships, apprenticeships, and and/or fellowships is available to emerging United States artists in theater, playwriting, dance, choreography, and film....
Deadline: Various
Posted: February 24, 2012 Van Lier Fund Offers Grants to New York City Arts Organizations for Pre-College Artist Fellowships
Grants of up to $60,000 will be awarded to New York City arts organizations conducting fellowship programs that promote the professional development of talented, culturally diverse, and disadvantaged young artists....
Deadline: 4/30/12 First Peoples Fund Accepting Nominations of American Indian Artists for Community Spirit Awards
Awards of $5,000 are available to established American Indian artists who have demonstrated substantial contributions to their community through their careers as artists....
Deadline: 5/31/12 Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Announces Guidelines for Artist Residencies Initiative
A total of up to $1.5 million in grants will be awarded to nonprofit dance companies, theaters, presenting organizations, and service organizations for artist residencies designed to increase demand for jazz, theater, and/or contemporary dance....
Deadline: 6/01/12 (Intent to Apply Form) Highly recommended: Don't do it all alone. Start by getting and reading a copy of Gigi Rosenberg's book The Artist's Guide to Grant Writing (Watson-Guptill, 2010). In it Gigi will teach you how to win grants, fund raise creatively, and ensure that every second you spend writing a proposal pushes your art further into the world. _______________________________________________________________ That's it for this newsletter. Send us an email if Harry and I can hand-craft some business support just for you. As always, all our best to you and yours!
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