Passwords -- keep them safe
I never imagined that this will be a great headache and a growing one. With just about everything to do on the internet and if you have to complete your transaction through the net , it becomes imperative that you have a User ID and a password. Having a User ID is no brainer . You can have the same User ID for N number of sites provided no one has beat you in registering the User ID before you.
Password ?!—this is becoming a growing challenge. Each site has its own recommendation to give you a taste of the headache. Some sites are not stringent – you can do a “123” as password and they accept it happily. Some sites make the task of setting a password difficult and for good reasons.. to enhance security… here are some hints and requirements on the password setting for it be Strong.
• Length. Make your passwords long with eight or more characters.
• Complexity. Include letters, punctuation, symbols, and numbers. Use the entire keyboard, not just the letters and characters you use or see most often. The greater the variety of characters in your password, the better. However, password hacking software automatically checks for common letter-to-symbol conversions, such as changing "and" to "&" or "to" to "2."
• Variation. To keep strong passwords effective, change them often. Set an automatic reminder for yourself to change your passwords on your email, banking, and credit card websites about every three months.
• Variety. Don't use the same password for everything. Cybercriminals steal passwords on websites that have very little security, and then they use that same password and user name in more secure environments, such as banking websites.
And more hints :
Avoid creating passwords that use:
• Dictionary words in any language. ( interesting …. )
• Words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and abbreviations.
• Sequences or repeated characters. Examples: 12345678, 222222, abcdefg, or adjacent letters on your keyboard (qwerty).
• Personal information. Your name, birthday, driver's license, passport number, or similar information
And once you set this up , you have to keep this to yourself !!
I am sure all of us have access to an email account ( yahoo , gmail etc. ) and yes Facebook and to banking sites ( multiple banks – banks have a login password and a separate password to do transactions ), ATM cards , Debit cards , Credit cards ,travel site for booking tickets, Cinema halls and so on and more ……
If you have a common password for all these sites .. God bless you … you make the jobs of the hackers easy .. if you have different passwords for different sites , God bless you again.. You have the challenge to remember the password for the various sites with all the combinations ( as recommended above ) that you have set up and to add to the list , some sites prompt change of password every three months … so the challenge is very intense to keep track.
Anyone has a smart idea to track all these effectively? Send me a private email ! I hear someone saying that I do not access all these sites yet life goes on peacefully… May be that is the answer
Password ?!—this is becoming a growing challenge. Each site has its own recommendation to give you a taste of the headache. Some sites are not stringent – you can do a “123” as password and they accept it happily. Some sites make the task of setting a password difficult and for good reasons.. to enhance security… here are some hints and requirements on the password setting for it be Strong.
• Length. Make your passwords long with eight or more characters.
• Complexity. Include letters, punctuation, symbols, and numbers. Use the entire keyboard, not just the letters and characters you use or see most often. The greater the variety of characters in your password, the better. However, password hacking software automatically checks for common letter-to-symbol conversions, such as changing "and" to "&" or "to" to "2."
• Variation. To keep strong passwords effective, change them often. Set an automatic reminder for yourself to change your passwords on your email, banking, and credit card websites about every three months.
• Variety. Don't use the same password for everything. Cybercriminals steal passwords on websites that have very little security, and then they use that same password and user name in more secure environments, such as banking websites.
And more hints :
Avoid creating passwords that use:
• Dictionary words in any language. ( interesting …. )
• Words spelled backwards, common misspellings, and abbreviations.
• Sequences or repeated characters. Examples: 12345678, 222222, abcdefg, or adjacent letters on your keyboard (qwerty).
• Personal information. Your name, birthday, driver's license, passport number, or similar information
And once you set this up , you have to keep this to yourself !!
I am sure all of us have access to an email account ( yahoo , gmail etc. ) and yes Facebook and to banking sites ( multiple banks – banks have a login password and a separate password to do transactions ), ATM cards , Debit cards , Credit cards ,travel site for booking tickets, Cinema halls and so on and more ……
If you have a common password for all these sites .. God bless you … you make the jobs of the hackers easy .. if you have different passwords for different sites , God bless you again.. You have the challenge to remember the password for the various sites with all the combinations ( as recommended above ) that you have set up and to add to the list , some sites prompt change of password every three months … so the challenge is very intense to keep track.
Anyone has a smart idea to track all these effectively? Send me a private email ! I hear someone saying that I do not access all these sites yet life goes on peacefully… May be that is the answer
Comments
One of my friends created multiple passwords of such complexities for his various sites. Then he saved everything in a folder in his personal laptop. Secured that folder with a password which have alphabets, numbers, special characters, full stops, commas etc. Then like we all betted on, he forgot that one single password :). Can't say it was bad, that still is one story that our group retell in every given gathering...
One of my friends created multiple passwords of such complexities for his various sites. Then he saved everything in a folder in his personal laptop. Secured that folder with a password which have alphabets, numbers, special characters, full stops, commas etc. Then like we all betted on, he forgot that one single password :). Can't say it was bad, that still is one story that our group retell in every given gathering...
One interesting and useful suggestion I picked up from an article on the same topic was to consider using a phrase that only you would remember and using the first or last letters of the words in the phrase that put together form a password. Variations of that password string along with other characters are used for different sites. That way you end up with a complex and strong password but can also remember it :)
I am going to give it a try one of these days...
Cheers!
Anoop
It is definitely a challenge particularly with multiple bank accounts for various reasons we keep opening them. Also to remember PIN numbers for ATM cards and TIN numbers as well. the list these days are endless. Make sure you name the excel file carefully as well. You never know, someday there could be another techie coming out with an innovative application to hold all these
But I agree with Babu's comments, writing in a piece of paper and keeping it safe... Probably wallet would be a better option, as it stays with us throughout the day :-)