Picking a good password is not as thought-free (but is twice as important) as it may seem. Whoever has your password can (in effect) "be you" anywhere on the web — posting comments, sending spam, and leaving dangerous feedback for others. Basically, such an impostor can ruin your online reputation — and possibly cause you serious financial grief.
With any online password, you should follow these common-sense rules to protect your privacy:
- Don't pick anything too obvious, such as your birthday, your first name, or your Social Security number. (Hint: If it's too easy to remember, it's probably too easy to crack.)
- Make things tough on the bad guys — combine numbers and letters and create nonsensical words.Use upper and lower cases.
- Don't give out your password to anyone — it's like giving away the keys to the front door of your house.
- If you even suspect someone has your password, immediately change it
- Change your password every few months just to be on the safe side.
Marsha, good advice that needs repeating. You reminding all of us about the ease at which hackers gain control of public accounts and computers. Changing passwords is also a good idea; a moving target is much harder to hit.
ReplyDeleteAlways a good idea, thanks for the comment
DeleteGreat advice, Marsha! And, while it may inconvenient, using a different password for each site will help to contain breaches to just one site.
ReplyDeleteGreat article! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDelete