As this week’s Hotmail password hacking incident shows, passwords are a prime target for cyber criminals and the reality is: most of us have passwords that can be extremely easy to guess and hack.
According to Colm Murphy, technical director with Espion, a common mistake we tend to make is to have a single password for each account “This is the equivalent of having a single key that opens your car, your safe, your home, and your office – can you imagine the implications of loosing that?”
So what makes a good password?
-It should NOT be based on personal information or be an entry in a dictionary
-Use a different password for each account
-The more complex a password, the less chance there is that it will be guessed. The downside: you will probably forget it BUT Mnemonics are a good way of remembering – mixing upper and lower case, numbers and symbols.
– Keep them secret – Do not write them down and definitely do not keep them in your wallet.
-Always log out of all applications when finished using them and do not opt to have the application remember you!
Remember: hackers are smart – very smart.
According to Colm Murphy, technical director with Espion, a common mistake we tend to make is to have a single password for each account “This is the equivalent of having a single key that opens your car, your safe, your home, and your office – can you imagine the implications of loosing that?”
So what makes a good password?
-It should NOT be based on personal information or be an entry in a dictionary
-Use a different password for each account
-The more complex a password, the less chance there is that it will be guessed. The downside: you will probably forget it BUT Mnemonics are a good way of remembering – mixing upper and lower case, numbers and symbols.
– Keep them secret – Do not write them down and definitely do not keep them in your wallet.
-Always log out of all applications when finished using them and do not opt to have the application remember you!
Remember: hackers are smart – very smart.