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Is Your Password Safe Enough?

By Eric James


Almost everyone uses the internet. It's safe to say that it is here to stay and will not be going anywhere fast. It is difficult to imagine a life without the net and computers. Where would we go for information? How would we communicate with each other? How would people shop for stuff? Routines are increasingly becoming challenging to manage. People utilize the internet because it is faster and frequently more convenient. Unfortunately this also means we need to be increasingly careful with the information many of us publish on the net. The rise of online crime and identity fraud is an increasing worry for everyone.

First of all, it is important to own an excellent password. Far too many people have extremely inadequate passwords that can be easy to hack. Online hackers use powerful programs which attempt to crack your account. The weaker your password, the easier it is to compromise your accounts. There are a number of straight forward and easy guidelines to having a more effective password. Arguably the single most important rule to follow is to never use a password which can be found in a dictionary. Your password ought to be at least six characters in size (the longer, the better). There are four types of characters to use for a good password: make use of upper and lower cased characters, use numbers and use special characters. Variation is the key for an effective password and by making use of all four different types of characters you will have a strong password. An easy strategy is to exchange normal characters for numbers and special characters. For example, s becomes a $, e becomes a or a becomes a 4. These are rather straight forward to follow but having an effective password is one of the most important defences in combating internet crime.

Secondly, you must always be watchful of what is published on the net. The increasing popularity of online networks and customizable home pages has made it increasingly easy for criminals to commit online identity theft. It is important to check what information you are writing online. The anonymity of the internet and the ease at which we can communicate with friends has meant people are often quite complacent when it comes to the information they upload on to the internet. Private information like your date of birth and where you live are things which are important to always keep private. Whenever you make this information available then you ought to definitely keep it private and share it only with people who you trust totally.

One thing to try is to use a password manager. These are free services you can use that make managing your usernames and passwords more straight forward and safer. Password management tools work by saving your username and password details safely and securely online. They either work by being local to your browser (installing them to your browser) or by being online (where you login online). They are really useful tools because they take away the hassle of remembering complicated passwords. This means you can have really strong passwords and use a unique password for each online account that you own. Your password strength is undermined by using the same password for all your accounts. Some will even automatically log you into your accounts for you. However, people might not necessarily trust password managers however they are especially helpful and secure.

Ultimately, you should try to remain conscious of two points: using a strong password and be careful of what information you reveal on the web. These are simple suggestions and whilst it might be tempting to ignore them, being safe online is one thing everyone should really be mindful of.




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