Author Topic: Password Madness  (Read 1714 times)

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Offline Peggy

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Password Madness
« on: Jan 07, 2008, 10:13:37 PM »
I recently read an article about how someone actually managed to hack into  a Gmail email account, steal some emails that had domain registration information off of some emails and then use that to heist the domain away from the owner, and hold it for ransom.

The victim found a tutorial online about how to hack Gmail. But, don't think for a moment this is a Gmail problem.  This is a password problem, and not one that can so easily avoided!

First off, you have to know that no matter what you do, nothing is 100% safe.  There are programs out there designed to break the algrorythims and find out what YOUR password is! So, the idea is to stay ahead of the hackers.

Here is some time proven advice about passwords:

1. When making up a password, use letters, numbers, and mixed cases.  Make them as long as allowed by the place where you are using them.

   here is a BAD password:  luv
   why? It's short, and a piece of software will figure that one out in about 2 seconds flat! It's all one case (lower case), and it's all letters!
   
   here is a better one:  bears02
   This one is better because it's a mix of letters and numbers.  What would make it better?  Mixing the case (add some upper case letters) and lenghen it out some.

   Here's a great one:  BearYSweetOne495 (I joke you not!)

2. Change your passwords -- Change your passwords --- Change YOUR PASSWORDS
                         DO IT OFTEN!

3. Never use the same password on any two internet websites.  Why? Because if a hacker gets into one website, they then have a password to try on any of your other accounts they might find!  (think again, if you don't think this happens)

4.  Change your passwords -- Change your passwords --- Change YOUR PASSWORDS
                         DO IT OFTEN!

5. Oh.. and just so you know, there are programs, even free ones that will make up passwords for you!  So, you don't have to think that deeply unless you really want to!

6. Don't use birthdays, anniversarys, last four digits of your Social Security numbers in your passwords... and I think the reasons for that is fairly obvious, but an example might be that your soon to be ex wants to mess with your website, you used your anniversary date as a password?!  Consider yourself hacked!


-- and yes, I shop online, I pay bills online, I do just about everything that there is to do (within reason) online! I have had many, many clients ask me how safe it is to shop and pay bills online.  It is as safe as anything else... if you get into your car, and take a drive today then you can get killed by some idiot who couldn't drive the speed limit if his life depended on it!  Things happen that is how life is, there are hackers, we will on occasion be hacked, that doesn't mean we stop living, or crawl up inside and hide away.

:) Just my ever humble (NOT) opinion! hahahaha, Peg
« Last Edit: Jan 07, 2008, 11:49:33 PM by pegrowe62 »
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Offline Jim

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Re: Password Madness
« Reply #1 on: Jan 07, 2008, 11:02:54 PM »
This is some great advice.  The worst thing you can do is use the same password for all your accounts.  Don't ever do that.  I know, it's easier to remember that way and that's why we do it, but it also makes it easy for someone that wants to steal your password to get into all of your accounts.

Great post, Peg.  It's nice to see this area get used.  :yay_jump:
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