Usernames and passwords are your security system
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes have trouble remembering my eight-letter passwords. Actually, it’s not the passwords themselves that are tough to remember, but which password goes with which email account.
As you know, it’s important to keep your passwords different for each account because if somebody hacks into one of your accounts and figures out your password, they’ll use that same password to try to hack into your other accounts.
Well, now I’m hearing that hacking accounts is becoming much more sophisticated. In fact, some scumbags are actually using computers to help them do it. So, each of our passwords should be much longer than they typical eight characters. And, they should be “stronger.”
My first thought was, “Seriously? I really need passwords that have 20 or more characters?” But after reading about the issue and thinking more about it, I realized two things. One, it makes a lot of sense. And two, it’s not as challenging as you’d think.
First of all, for your username, don’t use your name or email address like most people do. After all, your username is part of your personal security system, so make it secure. Make up something unique that no one would ever guess.
A couple of examples are “BoaConstrictor” and “SocketWrench.” Either of those, as well as a ton of others you could come up with, would be almost impossible to guess. (Unless, of course, Boa Constrictor was your nickname.)
If you were to change your password from eight characters to 20 or more characters – including upper and lowercase letters and a nice variety of symbols – it might take someone many years to figure out what it is. If someone was using a computer to try to figure out your password, the computer would use every combination, including symbols, so the most important thing is the length of your password, not which letters and symbols you use.
How could anyone remember a password with 20 or more characters? Well, it’s not that tough. Let’s say the three places you go to the most often are the bank, the grocery store and the doctor’s office. Your password could be something like Bank!!Grocery!!Doctor!!. That’s 23 characters, and I’m guessing nobody uses it as a password. And despite how long it is, it’s easier to remember than an eight-character password like @jR%*vCx.
Have you ever had one of your email accounts hacked? Best-case scenario it’s embarrassing as you tell all the people on your contact list that the email they got from you was not really from you. Worst-case scenario is you can have your personal information stolen.
So, toughen up your passwords. You’ll be glad you did.
I have ordered by phone, but have no account set up with you that I know of. I need to change my address so I will continue getting your catalogs.
It’s a shame that so many people are gullible and will try a link just to see what it is. Then they wonder why they get their email hacked. I get about one a week from people I know. If I get an email from my best friend, or relative, or fellow alumni with a link and NO explanation, then I delete it immediately. If they care enough for me to see it they will give an explanation so that I know is not a hacker. Do the same when you send out a favorite link.
I too use a password manager as I have a lot of passwords and each are unique. On some I use old addresses such as where I lived when I was 3 years old then put a different city to them. Example, 12#4mAinStReEtTokyoJapan. I made up a separate email address, user name, password and pin # just for my bank. In fact I have several email addresses that I can create or dispose of as needed, especially when dealing with news sites, social sites, etc. I also create unique passwords and store them on a notepad and kept on a thumb drive which I only plug in when I need it for a new password then remove it.
A good approach, though I would not trust a thumb drive since I’ve had two just suddenly go bad. Apparently those little soldered connections inside are very sensitive to the slightest bending. I had two go bad within a few months, so now I no longer trust them without a backup.
My son the geek says that thumb drives are too fragile to be a really trustworthy storage.
Frank’s idea is a good one. However, you must also take into consideration that hackers are very tricky. You may have a 20 plus password that you can remember; but what good is it if they can attack you from within or one of your friends that are not so computer savvy. They can send you a hidden virus that down loads your password, your computer contacts and personal information and down load it back to a computer bank of information.
I know why lock the door when these thugs can just walk in and take what they want, right? Well by protecting your computer it keeps most of the idiots out of your business. The professionals however, will be a different matter entirely. For this reason I use a Swiss product called Proton. This company has provided a system that will encrypt your messages that no one can steal and read without your permission, not even themselves. Here is a link https://protonmail.ch They more that people are aware of this service the better our security becomes. It really makes a difference when you want to keep your conversation between you and who you are talking to. A lot of corporations world wide are starting to take notice about Protonmail, I hope you fine folks will too. Otherwise, the bad guys as well as they good guys will be walking into your computer to see what you have been up to and where you have been. But by all means start by creating a 20 character that you can remember.
Has anybody heard of Cash? Can’t hack it and if it is stolen your whole life isn’t ruined for years to come. They only get that small portion. Figure out how much you need for the day an carry that. The reason people carried cards so if they got robbed your money was protected but that is no longer true. Don’t carry large sums sums of cash for one time transactions. Use money orders. If you must carry a card don’t carry all of them at the same time. When you are not using them keep them locked up in a safe place. Just remember credit cards aren’t safe any more.
“A fool and their money are soon departed.” How much cash is too much to have on hand? You can lose it, it can be stolen (by merchants as well as dishonest crooks) When you run out you will need to go back to the well to get some more. If you keep it at home them you are setting yourself up for thieves and home invasions. If you keep it at the bank then you are creating a paper trail that can be followed by our friendly government busy-bodies.
Use common sense. Figure out what you spend and keep only that in your pockets. When you need to replenish your cash reserves then do so with discretion. Don’t tell anyone where you keep your funds. The temptation may be to great and you may find that someone else has been dipping their beaks into your cash reserves.
I stopped using credit cards about 13 or 14 years ago, which has simplified my life considerably and undoubtedly saved me a fortune in interest charges.
I do carry a debit card for business expenses, but everything else is cash, sometimes gotten with another debit card for the personal account — which is normally kept at home, in a hidden safe (along with eve3rything else important.
Whatever I carry, cash or debit cards, is in one wallet, and I have another “decoy wallet” with about 15 bucks in singles and a couple of ancient credit cards, no longer valid and with the magnetic strip ruined (by a large magnet). A pretty poor take for a thief, though it looks good at first.
Dumping the credit cards and using cash takes some gettting used to, but it’s well worth it over the long run. It also leaves a much smaller paper trail.
Excellent ideas and wonderful help.thank you so much.
Another key is to not use the same password on multiple sites. It doesn’t matter how stong a password is if it is broken then it can be used for every other account you have. For instance if I am a hacker and I break your favorite shopping site password.
– then next thing I will attempt is every bank account I can with same credentials (or a close derivative). Next I would be trying every email provider. Email account is golden. If I get into your email I try you email account on every site I can. I will have that site send me a new password via email (delete that email befor you see it) and then order everything I want if you have a card stored on the account.
By the way, most of this would take little to no effeort on my part because I would use “bots” to do the work. These little programs are my minions and do my bidding as I move on to the next victim.)
Be smart not lazy when it comes to password
Also take the time to make a proper pass word. The most common passwords out there are 12345678, 87654321, abcdefgh ans so on. At lest make it difficult for a hacker. Don’t use your birthday or anyone in your family, your phone number, pet names or your social security number, once hacked you are really giving away the store. Like Troy said be smart not lazy, when it comes to making up a password.
Use a password vault. With a vault, you can create and store virtually unbreakable ( and unmemorizable ) passwords, especially for accounts you don’t use every day or that you need to keep secure. Also, change your passwords often – every 90 days or so is recommended.
For years now I have seen password advise that stated not to use any words that you can find in a dictionary (or that word spelled backward). I make up passwords like another post here. When it comes time to change passwords, I take a life event, like when my friend died, and used the initials of his name, the first letters of a statement about his life and how I felt about him and then the year he died. All told, with special characters, it came up to 15 characters.
Use the old phone letters to spell out words
LOLjokes=45435426 or for part of password 112dogs
There are well over 1,000 variants of 246810 so that you can have the same password for multiple sites, just written differently; to4VIatetin, 2foresix8X, you get the idea. I used to use this system in a secure environment where we were constantly trying to hack each others passwords, and even though everyone knew my password, no one could break it.
Another system which can create difficult to hack passwords is to remember a phrase or quote then select the first letter of each word. Throw in a special character for the month and two digits for the day both for added characters and to remind you how old the password is.
For example: “I thought I saw a puddy cat” becomes “Itisapc”. add the @ sign for 2nd month and 14 for todays date and the password becomes “[email protected]”. Your reminder key word could be “Tweety Bird”. (I hope you change your password at least once a year. if not then add a special characters for the year.
Use a longer quote, or the first and last character of the word to create longer passwords.
Or, you can get a password manager program. I need one anyways because I have over 40 individual passwords to remember.
As a old former IT security officer, I agree completely with you. I urged my users to come up with phrases as you have. One thing I did was recommend they also add numbers, special characters and use both upper and lower case.
Excellent advice. Thanks.
I use a quote or a saying and use the first letter of each word.
The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want Psalms23#1
Or go down the chapter to a other verse.
Or Psalm 64 O God listen to my complaint. Do not let my enemies’ threat overwhelm me Psalm64#1
Or I like: All good boys love their sisters. Such a good boy have I become that I love other boys sisters. AgbltsSGbhibtIlobs which =’s 20 characters
I use the same password on all my online accounts as thee are too many to have separate passwords and have any hope of remembering which is which. One different is on Facebook. It is the best password. I guess I could use that for all as it is the longest.
Make sure your Facebook password is as strong as you can make it. Many websites will let you sign in using Facebook, and if a hacker can sign into your Facebook, they can get on any number of websites, where they can find personal info on you, including stuff they can use to guess your passwords for other sites. Don’t ever sign into a website using Facebook, as that is easy for hackers to hack your account and get onto those sites.
As I’m sure you know, you are running a serous risk of getting EVERYTHING hacked, including your bank and credit card data, even your whole identity. Not a good thing, obviously.
You need to set STRONG passwords, especially for critical things like bank accounts, eBay, etc.
If you don;t want to use a password manager, do what I do — buy a cheap little notebook from the drug store and write down each password. I started doing this in 1995 and now have over a hundred in there, many of which are websites I haven’t been to in years. When you change a password, use White-Out nor something similar.
No reason to ever move the notebook from its spot next to your computer, so no risk of losing it.
Remember an old friend’s telephone number they had as a kid? After 20 or 30 years it is way out of date, they don’t have that number anymore so you can tack that onto a word or favorite movie name that is hard to forget. Makes a dandy hard to break password.
About your dog Max or anything else you can create a unique password with a sentence, such as “Max is the number one dog in my life, he is my very best friend” and turn it into “Mit#1diml,himvbf”. Just let them figure that one out.
Or do the same with title of a song or book you know about.
Here’s one that I have been using for years: I take a regular word such as Colorado stick a couple of numbers at the beginning and end because many sites require at least 2 numbers in the password. This is my primary password that I use everytime. BUT THEN I add the 2nd letter of the website that I am visiting to the beginning of the password and the next to the last letter of the site to the end of the password. This way my password changes everytime and is easy to remember and is almost impossible to figure out.
All good advice, another tip people can use to create long passwords is to use a small sentence, something easy to remember but it will be very long and too hard for hackers to crack.
Example could be, lets say I have a dog named Max, I could have a password of iLoveMyDogMax or MaxisMyBestFriend.
Typically anything over 12 characters will be very difficult to hack using a password cracker program, trust me I know, I’m in the IT field and have used password crackers for legit business reasons.