The Curious Autodidact

Okay Halloween is over so I assume you took time to check the batteries in your smoke detectors. Before you begin touring your wardrobe for Thanksgiving togs take a moment to check your passwords.

Cyber-crime is one of the fastest growing categories of fraud. To prevent becoming a victim take steps to insure you are being safe on-line. One of the basics of computing is changing passwords and making sure that your passwords are strong.

A good password should have numbers, characters, and letters.

Some experts suggest to use both upper case and lower case letters randomly within a word. It is best to have a password that is not in the dictionary, or to use numbers and characters and a phrase such as “1lesSBelltoanSwer&” or some such.

Some people create a password base and add onto it, this helps people to keep a variety of passwords without freaking out every time they must be recalled.

Microsoft providesPassword Checker that will help you to test the strength of your password.

You might also consider using one of the free password storage programs such as Password SafePasskeeper, or Keepass both of which are secure and free of charge.

Many security experts caution users to make sure not share the same passwords on their financial accounts as they have on their web-based e-mail account or their Paypal account. Changing your passwords annually, say the day before your birthday is also wise choice.

The “security” questions you choose should be more than the most simple to answer, dig down and answer the more complex ones, not for instance your brother’s name or the town you were born in. The story of Sarah Palin and how easily someone hacked into her e-mail account knowing some basic information about her reminds us of the importance of this.

Guessing passwords is not that tough unless you take that added effort to be creative in your invention of your security words.

Additionally be sure to use different user names to be extra secure.

If you are curious as to how passwords are broken read this article on Security Awareness from the University of Texas at Austin. After reading this article have a nice cup of tea and vow to pay more attention to your cyber-security.