Password Security - The Do's and Don'ts of passwords

Do’s and don’ts of passwords

With the increase of identity theft and electronic break-ins, password security has never been more important. Keep your passwords safe with the following do’s and don’ts of password security.

Is your password really secure?

Do’s

Do use odd characters such as !,@,#,$,and &.
Do use both lowercase and capital letters as well as numbers.
Do change your passwords at least bi-annually (Use daylight savings time as a reminder).
Do make your password at least 10 characters long.

‘Privacy is not for the passive.’ – Jeffrey Rosen

Don’ts

Don’t use personal names of spouses, children, pets or friends.
Don’t use consecutive numbers or letters.
Don’t use reoccurring passwords like Rover1, Rover2, Rover3.
Don’t use personal info like social security numbers or your address.
Don’t use common phrases or sports teams.
Don’t give out your password to anyone.
Don’t write down your password.

Don’t ever give your password to someone over the phone.

The importance of Password Security

eBay recently had a security breach that possibly allowed every eBay's user's password to be compromised. They recommend that everyone not only change their password, but that every should also change the password for all their other accounts that use the same password! That implies to me that the breach lost not only passwords but usernames and e-mail addresses as well.

 



The best policy to have is to keep separate passwords for all of your different accounts. I know this isn't easy, but have the best security never is. People should also change their passwords from time to time and just not by incrementing values or numbers like 'password1' and 'password2'. These are too easy to guess and automated password crackers use those type of algorithms.

 

There are password utilities that can store you passwords for you and these utilities use the latest encryption, but if you forget that one password, you are in trouble.

 

Now there is news that a hacker in Australia is breaking into and locking iPhones and iPads using the 'Where is my iPad' feature. When you feel your passwords or accounts have been breached, it is the best policy to change ALL of your passwords. You can never be too safe when it comes to online security.