Good Tools To Help You Keep Your Password Secure
Online security is becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain. Hackers or "black hat" folks are finding more and more ways to get into your system and cause havoc. In a previous post, I pointed out the reasons why you should change your password. Today I'll discuss the tools you can use to keep "fresh" passwords at your fingertips. There's nothing worse than visiting a website you've visited in the past year only to find out that before you can go further into the site, you will need to provide the password. You created it once, used it twice, and now you don't have a clue what it is. I will be discussing two basic products. You'll be amazed at how simple they really are.
1. A good old fashioned basic text editor. As I write this I am using a program called EditPad Lite. It's free and additional features will set you back a mere $50 I believe. The free version is powerful and whoops Notepad hands down. Notepad has a tendency to post hard returns when you cut and paste text to other applications. Enter the site, email address/username, then the password. Store it in a handy place on your computer. Obviously this won't work if you are using a public computer. For the most part, if only your friends and family are using the computer, put the file where you can access it easily.
2. Secondly there are countless password storage applications on the market. I am most familiar with a little app called Roboform. It is free for the first ten forms you enter data into. You'll realize very quickly that ten passwords is not nearly enough. Unlimited password storage wll cost you $30 with this application. It's a good little tool to have. You can customize it to suit your needs.
Next post I will discuss password strength. Password strength will especially be important when entering sensitive data online.
Showing posts with label change your password. Show all posts
Showing posts with label change your password. Show all posts
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Reasons You Give for Not Wanting to Change Your Password
With a website that has Change Your Password as part of the title, it's not rocket science what I'll be talking about: that's right, Change Your Password! We dislike to do it, it's a pain, and with all the different types of forms that you fill out online, sometimes you just can't remember your new password every time! But those are all very very good reasons that each person reading these words should have at least a rough plan in mind that reminds you to change your password a few times every year.
1. We dislike changing our passwords Of course we do. We dislike having someone we don't know remind us that it's time to "change your password." Yeah, yeah, yeah, you say. Sometimes for your own security you need to-repeat after me-change your password.
2. It's a pain to change your password. That goes right along with us not liking to do it. If you don't change your password frequently, the "bad guys" will find it. And can I tell you something straight up, when they get some very personal information from you, they won't think it's a pain. At all. So change your password before the bad guys get a chance to hack into your system. (And don't think they are not trying even as you read this. They are).
3. Different forms, different passwords. You can argue all day long about the need to keep different passwords to access different online accounts. These accounts range from banking to library accounts to amazon to ebay to paypal. Financial to informational to pretty much everything in between, people want some information from you. Some may only require a short password plus your email account. Others, such as a financial institution, should require more stringent account and password information. Fortunately, not all passwords nor are all accounts created equally.
But there are some very good free and inexpensive programs on the market that will help you organize your passwords so that hackers can't find you before it's time yet again to change your password.
In my next post, I will discuss tools you can use to help you organize your passwords so that when you do change your password, it will all be recorded.
1. We dislike changing our passwords Of course we do. We dislike having someone we don't know remind us that it's time to "change your password." Yeah, yeah, yeah, you say. Sometimes for your own security you need to-repeat after me-change your password.
2. It's a pain to change your password. That goes right along with us not liking to do it. If you don't change your password frequently, the "bad guys" will find it. And can I tell you something straight up, when they get some very personal information from you, they won't think it's a pain. At all. So change your password before the bad guys get a chance to hack into your system. (And don't think they are not trying even as you read this. They are).
3. Different forms, different passwords. You can argue all day long about the need to keep different passwords to access different online accounts. These accounts range from banking to library accounts to amazon to ebay to paypal. Financial to informational to pretty much everything in between, people want some information from you. Some may only require a short password plus your email account. Others, such as a financial institution, should require more stringent account and password information. Fortunately, not all passwords nor are all accounts created equally.
But there are some very good free and inexpensive programs on the market that will help you organize your passwords so that hackers can't find you before it's time yet again to change your password.
In my next post, I will discuss tools you can use to help you organize your passwords so that when you do change your password, it will all be recorded.
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