Are you a chronic user of the same password?
Friday, January 8, 2010 at 5:57PM Are you a chronic user of the same password?
Do you use a simple password such as the name of your children or pet for a password on web-sites and your computer?
Do you use this same password on multiple web sites (or all your web-sites!)?
Do you use passwords like this for critical functions such as on-line banking and email accounts?
If you answered yes to these questions I have some bad news for you; it’s only a matter of time before you are hacked!
Today’s hackers have sophisticated programs which use a form of attacking called “dictionary attacks.” This means they have a file with hundreds of thousands of common passwords and can keep on guessing until they break in to your accounts, and eventually they do!
There are several choices to make your internet experience safer and more hacker proof.
You can create a password which is what I call a simple-complex password; it’s a series of phrases which are easy for you to remember such as (iusedtolovehotfudge1324) and hard to guess or crack. This type of password is much better then something like (Jennifer) because it’s fairly simple to remember if it’s meaningful to you, and much harder for a potential hacker to guess.
For the greatest protection when creating passwords for critical web-sites and programs I recommend a program called (Keypass: http://keypass.info/) which is what is known as a password repository program. This means you have one master password which could be in the form recommended above and then in the program it will create completely un-guessable long password keys like (sdfsad78687!*@&32382373). This works well unless a hacker gets in to your system because your security software is not up to date and installs a key logger program which records all your keystrokes on your computer.
As I have said before, once your computer has been penetrated by a hacker the game is over and the only recourse is a complete reformat of the system. See my previous blog post where I talk about ESET security software if you have any doubts about your computers security software. Also check out the following link for more information on ESET security software and a free offer!: http://laymantech.com/ESET-Free-Offer.htm
I cannot stress in strong enough terms how important having good passwords in place is to your on-line health.
So protect yourself today before you get hacked and “owned” by the bad guys!
As always feel free to leave comments or ask questions!
Reader Comments (1)
I tried that program, it was interesting...