5 Top Tips for Password Management

Why password management is important

In the news recently you will have heard how LinkedIn got hacked into and over 6.5 million passwords were stolen, which in its self is frightening but would it also surprise you to hear that two more big companies also got hacked and had passwords stolen.  As an Admin for quite a few companies I always suggest changing your password regularly and in some case force people to change their password but how often have you changed your password to thinks like facebook and twitter? Chances are not very often, even f you are forced to change your password at work you don’t do it at home or even after all it is a big hassle and hard to remember what you have changed it to.  With more and more businesses using social media to interact with customers it is important to change these passwords as well even if you cannot be forced to.

Our Tips

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  1. Don’t use the same password.  If a hacker managed to get your password from a website they would not be able to access any of your other sites.  If having a different passwords is not viable to you then try this, have a separate password for your emails as this is what hackers really want.  Also use different passwords for your social media accounts again to limit damage.
  2. Change your password regularly.  The longer you keep using a password then the more chance of it being hacked or it will give the hacker longer access.  If a hacker does manage to gain access then you can at least reduce his access timer  by changing your password regularly.  In business environments I can force staff to change their password every 6 months to help maintain security and so should you even if you are not forced to.
  3. Short and simple is not the answer.  While they are easier to remember they are also easier to hack, while some places do limit you to 6 or 8 characters everyone needs to start thinking of pass-phrases instead of passwords.  This will make it longer and more secure.  To help make it even more secure add upper and lower case letters, spaces and symbols, all of this helps making your passwords or pass-phrases more secure.  If you need more help generating a random password that no one will guess try a password generator, see below for a couple of options.
  4. We know that trying to remember all these passwords will be a nightmare so try a storage program.  These keep all your passwords in one place but that program also requires a password, so all you need to remember is one password and you get access to all the rest.  These programs are designed to encrypt all the information so unless you have the password then no one can read any of your passwords.  See below for some recommended password storage programs
  5. Avoid using usernames and passwords on a public WIFI like an cafe or restaurant, hackers can use these and intercept your details.  There is a way to get around this security flaw and this is to use a VPN (virtual private network) but these can either make browsing slow or cost money.

Password Generators

password generators are good tools to get a truly random password that makes it imposiible for someone to guess.  Here are a few online ones that might be handy

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Password Storage

Here is a list of good programs to store your passwords, some are free and some can be taken portable and can be taken anywhere.

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And just for fun here is a clip I always find funny