A Futuristic Vision

In an experiment conducted at the University of Maryland, studies show that every 39 seconds a computers is attacked. Their computers endured more than a quarter million automated attempts to crack their passwords and/or usernames in a 24-day period. What can we do to stop this? All the strategies below are very useful, and are highly recommended.

If all of the above precautions are taken, everybody would be safer, and everybody could benefit. For example there would be less fraud when your password is secure. Without these high amounts of fraud, money would be saved by banks and corporate institutions. Eventually money would be saved by people too.

Many companies with online features would also benefit from this. This is because a higher number of people would feel more secure creating online accounts, and would therefore use the feature more often. More online accounts would mean more business for online banking, online grocery shopping etc. Businesses would benefit greatly from the extra business, and it’s very convenient for their customers.

Please feel free to visit any of the research websites linked to this page to read about password protection in more detail. Remember, something as simple as a strong password can protect your life, your bank accounts, your personal or corporate documents, and you safety in general. Educate yourself, and stay safe.

Strong Password Strategies

Many people use passwords to access important information from computers and online accounts. If these passwords fall into the wrong hands we know the risks. They can use your name to open new credit card accounts, apply for mortgages, or pretend to be you in online transactions. Fortunately, there are many ways to secure your password so that this will never happen to you.

A strong password should be something very lengthy, and should not be smaller then eight characters. Fourteen characters or more is very secure. When there is a great variety of characters in your password it is very hard to guess. For example combine letters, numbers and symbols. They fewer types of characters you have, the longer it should be. Try to use the whole keyboard or use a symbol unique to your language. It is important to use words or phrases that you will remember, but others will not guess.

Try to avoid using sequences or repeated characters such as ‘12345’, abcdefg’, or adjacent numbers such as 22222. It is also insecure to use only substitutions or numbers or symbols of an obvious password. For example a thief will try ‘password’ and then ‘p@$$word’. However, these are still very effective when used with other misspelled words, or variations in case such as tHiS.

It is also very common to use your login name as your password, but very ineffective, and more importantly it is very insecure. Avoid dictionary words, or swear words. Criminals have sophisticated technology that will guess words in any dictionary, including words spelled backwards, and common misspellings. For every different system, you should have a different password. If you have one password for everything, all of your important information can be found if that password is guessed.

These guidelines should help you come up with strong passwords. Imagine the dangers of an insecure system. Please take the time to protect yourselves with the very helpful strategies above.

The Risks of Passwords

There are many dangers linked to owning a computer at home or in the corporate world. We have important files and personal information on these machines, and hackers can get into them at steal all this information. In a matter of 2 minutes, your company or your life could be jeopardized.

The most common mistake made by people is choosing a password that is very easy to guess. For example 12% of users chose the password “password”. Many others use vanity passwords such as “hunk”, “goddess”, or “cutiepie”. This is an open door to your network. 35% of workers chose a password that can be found in their work area. For example the name of a spouse or child is very commonly used. They chose obvious objects that can be found around their cubicle such as a vacation spot, car model, favourite composer etc.

Many times people will forget their password so they resort to jotting them down, or choosing very weak ones. Sometimes they even reuse old passwords. In a matter of minutes critical corporate resources can be pulled down and used to their disadvantage.

People who are no longer with their company can gain access to their internet and private resources if the administrators haven’t changed the password to secure it. This could cost the company a lot of money because the former employee could use this for cell phones, phone cards and many other things.

These are some risks everybody should be aware of. It is so important to keep on top of things, especially when it comes to your safety. Identify the risks first, and then you will be able to address them and prevent them from further damage.

Introduction to Passwords

A password is a form of secret authentication that is used to limit peoples’ access to a private resource. Passwords can be used in a variety of ways. They have been used for many centuries now. Sentry guards would challenge people for a password and would allow a person in only if they knew the correct word. In modern days passwords are used to control access for computers, computer systems, cell phones, cable TV, ATMs, Internet access etc.

Even though it is called a password, it is not necessarily a word. It is more secure if you use a variety of punctuation marks, capital letters etc. because it is harder to guess, and therefore creates a higher security level. A passcode is different then a password, and implies that the code is purely numeric. It is commonly used for ATM access.

We hear a lot, especially in modern times where technology is advancing so rapidly, people have been able to break through a system’s security wall and hack into private information. This could be very dangerous, but there are many ways to secure your system also. After a certain number of attempts, the system will automatically not let the hacker in because it can identify it is not the administrator logging in. It is also very important to keep your password secret from others.

Passwords are very important in every day life. Your privacy is even more important though. How safe are your passwords?