How Good is your Password?

06Oct09

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.

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