If you do any online shopping and/or banking, user name and passwords have infiltrated your life. Many of my customers can easily knock one-half hour or more off their bill if they kept track of their passwords. I get many blank stares when I’m troubleshooting a machine and need to log into an Internet service or web site and I ask the customer for their password. Often times I receive the classic, “I don’t have a password.”
Everyone has a password for email, their bank, any other online service you might sign up for be it banking or a community forum.
Keeping track of passwords takes some diligence, but it absolutely must be done and approached sensibly.
Rule #1: DO NOT use the same password for everything you do. Using the same password can get you into online trouble faster than posting your credit card number on eBay.
Rule #2: Always write down your user name and password (and the date you obtained them). Preferably not on a sticky note that is attached to your monitor.
Rule #3: Use a mix of upper case and lower case, plus throw in some other characters as well, like * $ # @, etc. Using passwords like this make “cracking” a password much tougher. If you don’t believe me, read this interesting article I found on the subject.
Here are many more articles we have written that talk about how to properly manage your passwords.
- Password Mania
- A (another) word about passwords
- Why you shouldn’t use the same username and password for everything
- An analog tip for digital passwords
- Save yourself some grief
- Why you shouldn’t use the same username and password for everything
- Protect Your Identity
Comments are closed.