Secure passwords: tips for choosing and managing safe passwords
Every day brings a scary new story about online subscribers, commenters and shoppers getting their “secret” passwords stolen, and even exposed to the world.
In an embarrassing development, some users who consider themselves internet savvy were hardest hit in late 2010:
Readers of Gizmodo, Lifehacker and other Gawker Media sites may be among the savviest on the Web, but the most common password for logging into those sites is embarrassingly easy to guess: “123456.” So is the runner-up: “password.
Choosing and managing safe, secure passwords seems like a pain, but it is easier than you might think.
Christopher S. Penn offers some timely tips:
“For example, if the password you want to use is CheeseBurgers!, then create CheeseBurgers!Banking as a password for financial services, CheeseBurgers!Social for networks like Facebook and Twitter, CheeseBurgers!Email for mail services, etc. You’ll still mentally have “one” password but it won’t work for everything. (the added length is also a minor increase to security since longer passwords are harder to guess) If another Gawker media incident happens where millions of passwords and email addresses are stolen, perhaps only your CheeseBurgers!Blogging password will need to be changed.”
I have an even better idea: check out 1Password.
1Password generates new, secure passwords for you in seconds. If you want to be extra safe, choose a password over 13 characters long that contains not only letters and numbers but symbols too, like *, #, and $
I don’t have to remember these complicated passwords. 1Password does it for me.
Then 1Password saves that password along with all your other ones. When you need to log in again, you just click the 1Password bookmarklet on your browser tab, and it fills in your log in information. It even hits the “Enter” button!
1Password automatically backs up your passwords. If your computer crashes, or you need to access your log in information remotely, 1Password keeps them all safe and easy to get to. And it works on Mac, PC, iPad or iPhones.
1Password has saved my life a few times! Highly recommended for anyone finally convinced they need to be more careful about choosing and using secure passwords.
