Strong Passwords

Introduction

Usually, the one thing that stands between all your digital information and a bad guy is your password. This is the same for your computer, your email, your online banking, access to your credit card information and even the ATM.

Because of this, it is very important to use secure, impossible-to-guess passwords. And even beyond impossible-to-guess, passwords should be very hard to crack. Notice I did not say impossible-to-crack. Given enough time, all passwords can be cracked. The idea here is to make it hard for the bad guy and hopefully he'll move on.

On the other hand, remembering these monster passwords can be rather difficult. The trick is to find a balance between security and convenience. One way would be to use a web browser's built-in password-remembering feature. Another would be to use software such as Roboform from Siber Systems, Inc., which fills in an entire web form with a single click (after you've filled it in once and told Roboform to remember it).

Many people like to use easy to remember words like a spouse's or a pet's name, or a number such as a birthday or an address. These are bad for a number of reasons.


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