Passwords and Internet Security

Do you remember the good old days when the only password you needed was to get past the imaginary blockade your friends had erected when you were playing a game and usually it was something silly like “Mother May I”? Well, those days are just a remote memory, aren’t they?

We are now required to keep passwords for almost everything in our lives, and it all seems to be computerized.

For safety on the web, be sure to choose good passwords and keep them in secure locations. It would be nice to just memorize all your passwords, but it would be impossible to memorize every password you have.

Use different passwords for different websites. This will help limit the amount of information stolen in case you are hacked.  You can easily pick the first half of any name and append a special number to the end to create passwords on the fly that you can recall easily. Never use your debit pin number for anything online though.

Passwords should be 8-10 characters long. Numbers and/or symbols should be included along with lower case and upper case letters. Don’t use your kid’s names or anything else that would be easy for a thief to figure out.

Change your passwords every three to six months just to be safe. You can use a password auto-generator if you can’t come up with unique, difficult to crack passwords on your own.

Recently I was forwarded information on an article that should be a must read for everyone who deals with passwords – and I am sure that would be all of us. Lauren, the person who sent the article to me, said that she became interested in techniques to remembering passwords after she was assigned a research project which led her to the article at http://www.onlinehumanresourcesdegree.org/remember-password There is a wealth of information on this site and it is well worth taking the time to read through the various articles.