Feb 6, 2009 3
Do You Practice Safe Password Management?
Managing passwords is like having an intimate relationship with your computer. Your online identity is at stake. Your passwords are the key to your online identify.
Do you practice Safe Password Management?
A course in “Safe Password Management” should be taught in all schools! Here are some tips that should be course material.
Yahoo! Security Center wins hands-down for the best metaphor about the importance of a secure password:
“A password is like a toothbrush:
Choose a good one and don’t share it.”
Everyone who is online needs to understand the dangers and risks of being lazy, sloppy, and reckless for using passwords that are not secure.
TIP: Just say “NO” to the following:
- NO pet names
- NO favorite birds
- NO high school sweethearts
- NO birthday or anniversary
- NO “your name” plus one number
- NO “your company name + two numbers
- NOTHING under seven or eight characters in length
- NO to the name of ANYTHING that can be found in the dictionary
Check out the Yahoo! Security Center once again for tips about what TO DO when choosing a strong, secure password.
TIP: Don’t make it guessable by a person or detectable by programs that use a dictionary attack. These programs simply try every word in the dictionary as a possible password.
Do you remember all your passwords?
You now understand what NOT to do and HOW to choose a strong password.
TIP: Do NOT use the same password for all your accounts!
You cannot use the same “toothbrush” for everything!
You need to be creative, safe and secure…over and over.
How are you going remember ALL passwords to ALL of your accounts?
Don’t let this stop you from getting involved in Social Media!
You access multiple accounts on a daily basis and often log in and out and back in again…
I’m going to show you how to practice Safe Password Management to access all your social networks, email, online calendar, and more.