How Good Do You Secure Your Password?

By Ki Grinsing (Contributed)

A good password is something that cannot be easily guessed and should not the words from the dictionary. There are many password-cracking tools you can download from the internet and you can easily use it to crack password which is from the dictionary words. If you think that your password is the standard translation words from another language that hard to guess or to crack, probably you are wrong because some password cracking tools include multiple languages.

For example a password with a word followed by numbers or current years (e.g. dallas2009) is regarded not suitable because the cracking tools can be programmed to search for password of that type.

So what is a good password we ca use? The following tips is guideline in creating a good password:

1. A mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers, and symbols
2. At least 8 characters
3. Should not be written down at any time
4. Should not be shared with anyone else

You should avoid of using the following easy to guess password, which is a word chosen that is related to something commonly known about you or could be easily ascertained. Easy passwords could include the following:

• Your favorite nickname, sports team, actors, actress
• Your pet’s name, family name, friends
• Your date’s of birth, phone number, current year etc

The use of Password Matrix

The use of a password matrix can help you choose a hard to guess password and help you remember your password, so you do not have to write it down. You can design a matrix table that maps characters with the symbols or alphanumeric codes. For example you can map character A with symbol @, character B mapped to and so on, so you can replace your favorite passwords even though relates to your name with the mapping symbols or alphanumeric codes you have designed. The matrix is only a guide, and can be fixed to your monitor for ease while using it. But do not mark the matrix and always protect your password!

A password should not be written down at any time!

Your password should be known only to you – don’t tell anyone your password!
Protect your password while entering it, by not letting other people see the keyboard while you are typing it! Ask visitors and colleagues etc, to look away!

Ensure you virus scan all email attachments, Internet downloads, disks and CDs etc before opening the file. Also ensure that you do a complete virus scan of your hard drive regularly to ensure that a virus or other malicious program has not slipped through There are malicious programs available on the Internet that can log all of your keystrokes including your User ID and password, and send the information somewhere via your Internet connection. Just think, all the information that you type into your computer can be read by someone else. Hackers can also use the information gathered via these types of programs to log into your Internet bank account, steal your credit card number or other details.

Please don not use your work password for any other purpose such as logging into sites on the Internet. You do not know what security is in place on the site to protect the password.