Passwords

Firstly many apologies for not posting recently, but work has been very busy. I have made a promise to myself that I will be posting regularly, even when busy. Today's post is slightly longer than normal, but then it is ten times more important: PASSWORDS.

The strength of your password WILL determine how easy it is guess and therefore for someone access to access your online accounts. The grid below demonstrates how important it is to have long passwords (minimum 7 characters) and to mix up upper and lower case letters with numbers (if you include other characters such as symbols as well your password just gets stronger).

When Using 5 Characters
Using numbers only: 100,000
Using lower case letters only: 11.8 million
Using upper and lower case letters: 380 million
Using upper & lower case letters and numbers: 916 million

When Using 7 Characters
Using numbers only: 10 million
Using lower case letters only: 8 billion
Using upper and lower case letters: 1 trillion
Using upper & lower case letters and numbers: 3.5 trillion

The trick is to have a scheme that enables you to easily create a random password and remember it. For example take a phrase you know well like “mad dogs and Englishman go out in the midday sun.” Then take the second letter of each word — or the only letter in the case of single-character words — to yield aonnounhiu. Then use upper case for every second consonant and substitute numbers for certain vowels (i becomes 1 or o becomes 0). Your password now becomes aonNounh1u (minimum 7 characters) with a mixture of upper and lower case letters with numbers (if you include other characters such as symbols as well your password just gets stronger).

Be creative with your rules as this way it will become even harder to guess. The aim is to produce a random combination of letters, number and special characters you can remember.

Then add a few characters to tell you the site or account the password is for. For example you could add the first three letters of the site URL to the beginning or end of your base password, but three letters further on in the alphabet, so "hot" for Hotmail.com becomes krv.

So your password for Hotmail could be: krvaonNounh1u - a good length password with a mixture of letters (upper and lower case) and numbers, but most importantly it is memorable to you. If you decide to change your password , keep the same rules, just change your memorable phrase.

Dos and Dont's of Passwords

• DO use a password manager such as Secure Data Organiser
• DO keep all passwords secret
• DO change your password regularly
• DO use a master password on your browser (available in Firefox)
• DO change your password after access sites/accounts on public computers as there may be key logging software on the computer

• DON'T use the same password for different sites and accounts
• DON'T use normal words, wedding anniversary dates or childrens' names
• DON'T use links in emails to "access your account". Type the actual website yourself. This is to protect you from phishing emails.