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A Lesson In Password Security
Bryan Young
Staff Writer
2010-12-23
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It seems today that every website you go to wants you to sign up for their site with a username and password. Not only this, but each site has its own restrictions on what your password can be. Some require you to use both letters and numbers, while others kick out anything less than (insert random number here) characters long. The worst though is when you are required to change your password after so much time has passed. Well, those restrictions exist for a reason, and there are certain things you can do to stay safe when you're browsing online.
 | | A Lesson in Password Security |  |
The biggest problem with passwords is that you have to remember so many of them. You have passwords to different shopping sites, bank sites, news sites, webmail sites, the list goes on and on. It is so easy to just find one password that you can remember and use it everywhere. This is a big mistake, as has been displayed by the Gawker incident. If one password on one site is discovered by a hacker, they now have all your passwords to all your websites. Using a unique password for each site you frequent makes it much harder to remember them all, but it is much safer. A safe alternative to post-it notes on you monitor is to use a password manager, such as 1Password or RoboForm.
Another important thing to remember is to use strong passwords. The Gawker hackers posted the most commonly used passwords retrieved from the Gawker database, and at the top of the list is "12345", which is in the words of Dark Helmet, "the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!" Also on the top ten list were such gems as "password" "qwerty" "abc123" and "monkey". Using a combination of letters and numbers, in a not-so-easily guessed order, makes it much harder to guess, which keeps you safer.
About the Author:
Bryan is a staff writer for SecurityProNews
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