There are so
many things that require passwords theses day that remembering them can be a
problem, because of this a lot of people pick there passwords poorly, but it is
important that everyone should know how to choose a good password and keep it
safe.
All
passwords should be at least eight characters long and use a mixture of upper
and lower case characters, numbers, punctuation and symbols. Passwords should
never be words that can be found in a dictionary because of an attack method
known as a dictionary attack, this is when software tools are used that can try
every word in a dictionary or word list or both until your password is found.
The same password should never be used for more than one thing, i.e. your
computer password should not be the same as your email password.
Don’t ever
choose a password based on personal information such as name, birth-date, wife’s
name, phone number, address etc. Choose a password that can be remembered and
avoid writing it down anywhere. Passwords should never be stored on a computer
except in encrypted form and never emailed or sent through an unsecure channel.
Password
generating software is available for free to make secure passwords and there
are websites that will give you a rating as to how secure your password is. It
should be made mandatory in a business environment that every employee should
have to change their password regularly, I suggest at least once a month. A
completely different password should be picked rather than just adding a number
onto the old password; which is a fairly common practice.
If you need
to write down passwords make sure the paper with the password is in a secure
place that only you have access to; but writing down a password is a bad idea
even if you think it will be stored securely. Be careful of entering a password
when others are present and be sure no one is looking over your shoulder as you
enter a password as ‘shoulder surfing’ is a common method of someone attaining
your password.
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