Password Security

Recently, a lot of people's online accounts have been hacked from yahoo to Hotmail to Facebook to Linked In. Of course this is not new news because this happens all the time. We've written multiple password articles to help users prevent this from happening to them; however, weak passwords continue compromising online accounts. This is a great refresher on how to create good complex passwords that are easy to remember.

Lets start from the beginning. A simple password is not good enough. There is a ton of software out there that can hack passwords without a lot of effort. Most malicious attempts will try to find easy passwords to crack and there is a lot of software out there that will try one password after another. One of these is called a dictionary attack. This type of an attack uses all available dictionary words with some combination of numbers or characters before or after the word. So, if your password is "Simon23" or similar, you have a weak password and it is a matter of when, not if, your account gets hacked.

Most people create weak passwords because they are easy to remember. Actually, a complex password can also be easy to remember, it just takes a few minutes of brainstorming. Use a favorite movie or a phrase that you love for example, if you are a Star Wars fan, say something like St@rW0rsRULES! and there is a very good complex password that is easy to remember. You can change the letter a with an @ sign and the letter o with a zero. Other easy substitutions include changing the letter i with the number 1, changing the letter s with number 5, or use a :-) smiley in your password. Be as creative as you would like but make sure that the password is something that you can easily remember. The following are other good examples of complex passwords that are easy to remember: I<3myC@tSimon! where <3 is a heart and means love, or 3&5areMyLucky#$.

Once you figured out your new complex passwords, log on to your online accounts and change them. It is good practice to regularly change your passwords and now is a great time to do it. While it might be tempting to use the same password for all of your online accounts, resist the urge to do so. Ask yourself it is a good idea to have one key in your life that opens everything that you own such as your cars, house, safety deposit box, safe, post box, storage unit, etc. The answer is no. The same goes with online accounts. Once a hacker gets your email password, he or she will try to use it to access other accounts such as your online banking website. If your username and password are identical, it will be very easy to get access.

Last but not least, if you are writing down your passwords, hide the document somewhere not easily accessible such as a safe. If you need easy access to your passwords, install password storage software. This type of password database software encrypts passwords and uses a single master password to access the database. Some products such as Kaspersky Pure 2.0 Total Security antivirus software comes with a built in password management. There are also free open source programs available such as KeePass. No matter what solution you choose to record your passwords, remember to consistently back up the password database.

If you have any additional questions about password security or storage, contact us at TechFarmer and we will gladly answer all of your questions!