Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Keeping Your Password Safe

By Duna Forlan


Nearly everybody uses the web daily. It's safe to suggest that it is here to stay and is not going to be heading anywhere fast. It is difficult to imagine a life without the internet and computers. Where would we read news or information? How would people communicate with one another? How would we shop for things? Daily routines are increasingly getting hectic. Most people utilize the web because it is quicker and frequently more convenient. Unluckily this also means we have to be ever more careful with the information most of us publish online. The rise of online crime and identity theft is a rising concern for everyone.

Firstly, it is important to have an excellent password. Too many people own surprisingly inadequate passwords that can be simple to crack. Cyber criminals use powerful programs that attempt to crack your account. The weaker your online password, the easier it is to crack your account. There are a number of easy rules to have a stronger password. Perhaps the single most important rule is to never ever use a word which can be found in a dictionary. Your password should be at least six letters in size (the longer the password, the better). There are four types of characters to use for a great password: make use of upper and lower casing, use numerical characters and use special characters (punctuation symbols). Variation is extremely important for an excellent password and by using all four types of characters you can have a good password. Another easy tip is to exchange normal characters for numbers and special characters. For example, s becomes a $, e becomes a or a becomes a 4. These are fairly straight forward to follow but to have a robust password is one of the most important defences in combating online crime.

Secondly, you must always be watchful of what is published on the web. The increasing popularity of social network sites and personal home pages has made it even easier for criminals to commit identity theft. It is always important to keep in mind what private information you are publishing on the net. The relative anonymity of the web and the ease at which we can communicate with each other has meant people are often fairly relaxed when it comes to the information they upload on to the internet. Private information like your date of birth and your address are details that are important to keep private. If you do make this information public then you should keep it private and share it only with other people who you trust totally.

Something to try is to use an online password manager. There are many free tools you can use that make handling your usernames and passwords easier and more safe. Password management tools work by storing your username and password details safely and securely on the web. They either work by being local to your computer (installing them to your browser) or by being online (where you sign in online). They are very helpful services because they take away the hassle of remembering complicated passwords. This means you are able to have really strong passwords and use different passwords for each online account you have. A password is undermined by using the same password for each of your accounts. Some will even log you into your accounts for you. Understandably, some people do not automatically trust online password management services but they are incredibly useful and rather safe.

In conclusion, you ought to remain aware of two points: using a good password and be careful of what information you publish on the internet. These are simple recommendations and while it may be tempting to ignore them, online security is something everyone should be aware of.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment