My mother used to counsel that if you couldn’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all. Moms are almost always right, but after reading a blurb over at PC Magazine on the most commonly used computer passwords, I’ve got to go on record that people whose passwords are on this list are either lazy, foolish or way too trusting for their own good.
Here’s the list:
- password
- 123456
- qwerty
- abc123
- letmein
- monkey
- myspace 1
- password 1
- blink182
- (your first name)
I know it’s a pain, but in today’s world you can’t afford to use obvious passwords, or even the same password – especially when it involves banking, e-mail and social media accounts. If possible, you’d be wise to use a combination of letters (upper and lower case), numbers and/or symbols, like “B$martr7.” By all means change them from time to time, and NEVER write them down or create a password file on your system.
For some interesting techniques on how to select strong passwords, check out this site from Vassar College. Also feel free to lay in a comment about your favorite password tip(s).
May 21st, 2008 at 5:55 pm
It is a good idea is to change your passwords every 90 days or so. An easy way to do so is to take a number from the password and increase it by 1 each time until you reach 9 and then start at 1 again. This way it is still easy for you to remember while changing frequently.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Tip of the hat to jervis961 for showing how easy it can be to work smarter.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:30 pm
The problem with passwords is having to many for different sites. That`s when many people forget or mix them up. I have observed people at internet cafe`s not being careful enough of who is behind them watching.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:14 am
That is true sugarbear. Sometimes people give out thier passwords so someone can check something for them as well. It seems harmless enough “john can you check my email, my password is xxx”. The problem is that now everyone else heard it as well and most people use either the same or variations of the same password for everything.
I think having a fingerprint scanner for password is a move in the right direction but others point out that there are ways around it. Perhaps Dell is working on a solution to the problem??
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:58 am
I was just sitting here with my buddy at work thinking that passwords are the new phone numbers . . .meaning . . .how many phone numbers does anyone really remember? Out of the 50 - 60 cell/home/work phone numbers locked in my cell phone, I maybe can recite 5 . . . but since you can’t write down your password . . .and you can’t make a list of them, you are forced to memorize which password goes with which account and is it an upper case Z or a lower case t . . what a mess . . .
I’m the worst at passwords, I can’t ever remember them. Thank goodness that websites have a built in default for sending you your password via e-mail when you forget.
May 22nd, 2008 at 10:19 am
@sugarbear Call me paranoid, but I’ve never been comfortable with Internet cafes.
@Quint Good point. If I had a nickel for every time I had to rely on a Web site password default, I could be typing this from a villa in the south of France.
May 22nd, 2008 at 11:26 am
@JohnP, with my law enforcement back ground, I am probably more paranoid than you are. Having seen more than I care to. The general public just aren`t careful enough and really don`t realize the consequences.
Last year I was In Las Vegas during CES. The hotel I was staying in had a computer room for the public. You could hook up a laptop or use two desktops that were provided. I used their desktop to check my email, as I didn`t want to take my laptop with me. Some one had turned on the auto complete and you can image what all I found there and in the web history. I went to hotel management and brought them back to the computer room and showed them what I had found. I showed them that the user before me had logged into his bank account. I was able to take them to this man`s account and access all his information. Management immediately had the two desktops removed and sent to their computer dept. Some one had deliberately set these desktops to steal info. This can happen any where.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Hello,
My name is Richard; I am the Dell security liaison on our forums. It is good that sugarbear commented on this blog as not everyone thinks seriously about security. Passwords are used to protect ourselves from others looking into our private and financial information.
Okay, so you have everything setup, all you security software tools and passwords. But, is the password good enough that someone won’t be able to figure it out? Or, what if you forget the password? This can seem to be very cumbersome and scary.
This is what I do to make things easier for me. I categorize the security levels to green, yellow, and red. Green level is a password that does not matter if someone gets it. The yellow is for medium security and red is highest security. I use the same password for each level. So, I only have to remember three passwords.
However, for financial (Banking, IRA Mutual fund, Stock) passwords those should be very secure, and unique. Sugarbear brings up a great point. Try not to access you bank information from a third party computer terminal. You have no way of knowing who used the computer before you. For all you know there could be a key logger program installed, which records everything you type into the computer.
A lot of banks will try identifying your computer by using a cookie. As an added security measure you may need to answer a security question if the bank does not recognize your computer with the account information you entered. Try to use something from your past, like what was your first teachers nick name, or something like that. You have seen the question of what was your mother’s maiden name, that’s not very secure.
Just take a little time to think about unique passwords and use them wisely.
Regards,
Richard B
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I just remembered that I also use my blackberry as a backup. It has a password keeper program that I can use to remember all my different passwords. The program itself has a password as well. There are good, bad and funny points to this. The good is that I have a program I can use to find a password I forgot. The bad is that if someone takes and hacks my blackberry they have access to all my passwords. The funny would be if I forgot the password for my password keeper program.
Perhaps Dell could come up with something that incorperates triple security and can store your passwords. Combine the fingerprint reader, a voice match system and face recognition so all 3 have to match. I can’t forsee anyone taking the tiem to try and hack past all 3 systems to see my email but there is always someone to take up the challenge.
June 16th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Most working people have a large number of systems/applications that the must access to do their jobs, and many of them require passwords. Add to this the variety of passwords being used in our personal life, and it can become quite a problem.
I agree with RichardB about having levels for passwords, but the 3 I use are a bit different. I have “Green” which are of little consequence if someone should get it, “Yellow” for almost all other work related passwords, and “Red” for my personal passwords for shopping sites, on-line banking, etc. By doing this, I can operate with 3 passwords. The passwords are quite different so that I do not confuse them, but are things that are easy for me to remember. While I do not have then written down anywhere, I do have “Hints” in a folder on my desktop…(not labeled Password info or anything like that” and I keep the hints somewhat cryptic…for exaample if I was using the name of my dog and his age to create a password of “Fid0_06″ the hint would appear as “D0g_year”
The other thing that I do to keep the number of passwords I need to remember down to 3 is that if I have to change ony of them for any reason (forced to change by IT at work, or reset for general security reasons), I change the password on any sites or applications in that “color” group.
As far as on-line bill paying is concerned, I highly recommend that instead of accessing the individual creditors/service providers sites to pay your bills you should set up all of your bill paying through you bank. Most banks offer on-line bill pay at little or no cost. This way you only have one site to log into to pay all of your bills. My bank (Bank of America) delivers 95% of my payments either “Same Day” or “Next Day” and the other 5% are within 4 days.
Ditto on the warning to NEVER use a 3rd party computer to access your personal information!!
June 16th, 2008 at 8:10 pm
Judy — Thanks for dropping by and leaving so many helpful nuggets of information. I encourage you to use the idea submission feature — in the upper right-hand portion of Your Blog’s main page — to drop us a line on any other general productivity tips that come to mind!