How to Create a Stronger Password
The easiest way to create a strong password is to use the first letter of a Memorable Phrase or Mnemonics. It may be a verse from a poem or a line from a movie. However something specific to your personal life may be a better choice.
For example the first letter of a phrase like, “Danny’s mom Jean enjoys high tea at 430“ will give us a password that looks like this: DmJehta430
This is an example of a strong password with a mix of uppercase letters, lowercase letters and numerals. To make it stronger, special characters such as ! $ % ^ & may be used.
Make your password at least 8 characters long. The longer your password the better it is.
Remember to rotate between a few good passwords and do not use the same password on all the different sites. No matter how strong, it is never safe to use just the one.
Shortlist:
- Memorable Phrase or Mnemonics
- Uppercase Letters
- Lowercase Letters
- Numerals
- Special Characters
Tips for a Stronger Password
It’s especially important to have a separate password for an email account, says Mozilla’s Mr. Sterne. Many sites have “Forgot my password” buttons that, when clicked, initiate a password-recovery process by email. Hackers who break into an email account can then intercept those emails and take control of each account registered using that address.
“Having the same password for everything is like having the same key for your house, your car, your gym locker, your office,” says Michael Barrett, chief information-security officer for online-payments service PayPal, a unit of eBay Inc.
by Stu Woo
Provided by The Wall Street Journal via Yahoo
Related Article: 3 FREE Password Managers
8 Ways to Protect Yourself from Email Breach
Another major hacker attack last week exposed the names and emails of millions of consumers to cyber criminals — and you might be on the list.
“As a practical matter, you can’t get out of all of the massive data banks that hold your personal data. Even the names of people who opted out might be retained. But you can do your best to minimize your risk.”
Click to Read 8 Ways to Protect Yourself From Email Breach at CBS.com’s MoneyWatch by Jane Bryant Quinn
Online Security Tips
- ALWAYS, always use an antivirus program on your computer. Always. Yes, even a Mac.
- Backup, backup,backup,backup. That means an external hard drive (or portable hard drive). If you start out by saving all your files to an external hard drive, when you lose your computer all your files are still safe.
- Get another external hard drive and then backup all your files to it. If the first hard drive fails (and they sometimes do through no fault of your own) you still have all your files backed up.
- Be discriminating about links. You don’t know where they’ve been.
Watch for the next post on the top 3 Antivirus Software.
Alert: Kama Sutra Trojan via PowerPoint Presentation?
“A new malware campaign is camouflaging its dangerous payload in the guise of a PowerPoint presentation showing 13 explicit Kama Sutra sexual positions, according to the security firm Sophos. With names like “The Frog,” “Wheelbarrow” and “Lyons Stagecoach,” the PowerPoint is certainly not safe for work.
…. But while they’re viewing the provocative pornographic pics, a backdoor Trojan called “Troj/Bckdr-RFM” is hard at work, automatically and inconspicuously planting malicious software on the victim’s system.”
Diet Pill Scammers Pretend to be News Channel(s)
By News 8 Reporter Craig McKee
‘…But If you take the time to really look at the site, you will notice something I missed and Mitch pointed out: the word “advertorial” posted at the very top of the page.
“That’s their way of covering their bases, saying hey we’re not faking a news organization, this is an advertorial piece tied to a made-up Channel 8, which just happens to be in San Diego, of course,” Gruber said.’
For Spammers
Yes, we go through every comment and delete spam. For example, 303 today alone.
Yes, you are trying to promote your website/business. Understandable. Therefore, if you would like to exchange links, please send us a proper email. No adult links, please. There are other venues for that so take advantage of those instead of antagonizing business owner and readers who are looking for something else.
Thank you.
Increasing Font Size in Facebook
Facebook users are complaining that the new smaller font size is too small.
Try holding down “Ctrl” while clicking “+” to increase the font size.
To reduce the font size hold down “Ctrl” while clicking “-”
Online Life Made Easier: Password Managers
Password Managers are a very easy way to keep track of the many passwords you may have for all your online accounts. If you’re a small business owner, then you probably have a Facebook account, a Twitter account, a blog account and a website hosting account.
While some of us can remember the password to most of our accounts thanks to regular use and a helmet, sometimes other accounts are accessed on a periodic basis. Information that is not used and reused regularly may fade away (apparently a normal brain functions in this manner). A good password manager can help thus freeing up valuable brain space for other important details (Fine. Apparently a normal brain doesn’t quite work this way).
Free Password Managers
1. FireFox–Built-In Password Manager
If you read our blog entry on the three best browsers (to date), then you are probably using FireFox as your default browser while relegating IE to the background. If you haven’t read that blog entry, then you should. Really. Go ahead. We will wait here for you to finish.
Did you know that Firefox has a built-in password manager? We’re sure you did and probably use it too, unless you are still using IE that also has a password manager. We don’t trust IE’s security measures so the less said the better.
If you are using the password manager in Firefox just remember to set a master password. Otherwise it would be very easy for anyone who has access to your computer to copy all the passwords you have saved. For easy tips on creating a strong password click here to read the previous post.
2. KeePass
Unfortunate choice of names but a good Password Manager nevertheless. It has strong security features and also free. We also like that it is open source.
Their amusing write-up of the encryption algorithms warranted a copy/paste, so here you go.
- Even if you would use all computers in the world to attack one database, decrypting it would take longer than the age of the universe.
- Even quantum computers won’t help that much. The algorithms are symmetric so its complexity would be reduced a bit, anyway, the sun will go nova before you have decrypted the database. http://keepass.info/features.html
Newbies (beginners) who don’t want to download anything extra will need to be on Windows Vista and higher (to use version 2x).
3. LastPass
There are two versions, free and premium.
Features for the free version allow users to:
- Securely synchronize data across all devices.
- Automatically Fill Forms–Set up multiple ‘profiles’ and automatically fill your personal information into web forms accurately and safely.
- Store secure notes
- Easily Import existing passwords from Internet Explorer, Firefox, and other Password Managers (We love this option) https://lastpass.com/features_free.php
Do you use a Password Manager that is indispensable to you? Share it with us in the comment box below.