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By George Norman

Added on 12 Oct 2009(955 Views)

If you want to keep people with malicious intent out of your online account – like you Gmail account, or Facebook account – you must pick a properly strong password and keep it under wraps. Here are some guidelines on how to keep your password safe and protected.

Passwords are not reusable

It doesn’t occur to some people that using the same username and password for pretty much every online account they have poses a security risk. If just one account is broken into, all other accounts can easily be broken into because they share the same username and password.

Passwords must contain more than letters

When you pick a password, make sure it is made up or letters, numbers and symbols. By adding numbers and symbols you make it harder for people with malicious intent to crack that password.

Passwords must not be easily guessable

When you come up with a password do not pick an easily guessable word like the name of your child, the name of your pet or your loved one’s name. Do not pick easily guessable numbers either –like your birthday, phone number or address

Be careful where you store your passwords

Let’s assume that you write down your password on a piece of paper or sticky note. Do not put that piece of paper/sticky note in a highly visible place where anyone who walks by can see it.
If you store your passwords in a computer file instead, do not name the file something like “my passwords.” Give the file a unique name so other people who use the computer do not immediately realize what’s inside it.

Keep your password recovery options up-to-date

When you forget your password you will be forced to reset it. The reset password will be sent to the email address the service has on file. It is thus important that you update your password recovery options whenever it is necessary. What good will it do you to have a password reset sent to an email address you no longer use?

Some online services allow you to set up a bunch of questions to which you will answer when you lose your password – thus proving you are the account holder for that online account. When setting up the question you will answer to later, make sure to pick a question to which only you would know the answer. Do not pick something easily guessable; keep in mind that the answers to some questions can be easily guessed by going though the info about you readily available online (your blog, social networking profile, etc).

Look out for phishing attempts

No online service will ever ask you to give out the password for your account. If you ever receive an email asking you to reveal our password, ignore it. Better yet, click the Spam button. If you are asked to click a link in the email message and visit your online account to log into it for some reason, you may be directed to a phishing site. You can identify a phishing site by these telltale signs: the URL contains an extra word or misspellings; there are typos on the site, outdated content, broken and missing pictures.

Tips and warnings

A few guidelines on how to keep your computer protected and secure are available here.



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Tags: Password, Security



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