Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Internet Security: (Password protection)

Forgive me but I write today's post with a certain level of disgust at the lack of common sense when it comes to how people handle their Internet passwords sometimes resulting in un-nessecary computer repair!

The typical Internet user when he or she signs up for some program online is usually required supply an e-mail address and a password during the sign-up process, as well as their name and various other details of their person. The typical Internet user will also fill out that form in perfect truthful detail thinking nothing of the fact that they are telling perfect strangers who they are, what their e-mail is AND (here it comes) more often than not they supply these strangers with the same password as is required to access their e-mail. So this is what it boils down to. I give some one I don't know my name, my e-mail and the password to access my e-mail and then I become surprised when my e-mail gets hacked into and my identity stolen and all my friends and family in my e-mail contacts are also scammed because the hackers who broke into my e-mail e-mailed them and sent them viruses and Trojans for stealing personal information, and they (my e-mail contacts) believing they are receiving an e-mail from me, happily opens the malware attachment and get their identity stolen and the circle of identity theft is complete... Good job!(sarcasm)

friends I cant tell you how often that's been the case with my clients when they call me, their computer repair guy freaking out over what has happend. Never EVER supply your e-mail password on any form which ALSO requires your e-mail address...

What to do then?

The answer is quite simple. Have more than one password which you can use for signing up for things.

In reality its a good practice to have about 5 passwords that you can rotate around depending on the situation. If a sign up form requires both an e-mail address and password no problem give them one of your passwords that is not used to access your e-mail otherwise if they don't require an e-mail address then you can give them your normal password.

Also don't make your 5 passwords some long unfamiliar thing which is hard to remember. Let it be something personal that you can easily remember. For example if you have trouble remembering a password like "2466835831" then choose something else such as a word or better yet a phrase. "theworldgoesaround" is an example of a phrase. Now in order to make your password harder to figure out take out some of the letters in your password and replace them with numbers i.e "th3w0r1dg03sar0und" the "o"s are replaced with zeros and the "e"s are replaced with threes the "L" is also replaced with a one.

computer repair required!
In the end folks remember that only you are able to prevent your own identity theft and keep from having to hire a computer repair man. Some common sense techniques go a long way to help protect your information.

9 comments:

  1. Wow! I didn't realise people did that with their passwords. I make up a new password everytime and then write it on a peice of paper that I keep in my fire proof safe next to the computer. People say I'm paranoid but this just goes to show thats a good thing!

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  2. this data is so interesting
    thanks
    nice post

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  3. same here, i always make a new password and use all characters allowed

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  4. Very solid solutions here. Just want to link this page to my parents, they're seriously retarded when it comes to anything online.

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  5. I feel like this sometimes.

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  6. I have 20 different passwords. Half of them I don't know, only the movements of my hands (so I didn't have access to some things when I broke my hand a while back)

    None of them is shorter than 12 symbols.
    Safe enough? Definitely

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  7. Lol what kills me is people saving there computer passwords on a notepad file on there desktop :P

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