Way back when no one worried about password security. Just having a password was enough. As long as your lock needed a key, it was enough. Over the last few decades that has changed, a little bit at a time. Gone are the days of using birthdays, spouses nicknames, and favorite pets as passwords. Sure you can still do it, but it is a little like trying to lock the front door of your house with an antique mortise lock. Just about anyone can figure out how to pick it in just a few minutes. This brings me to a story I came across a few weeks back.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3034256/Eighth-grader-charged-felony-changing-annoying-teacher-s-computer-background-picture-two-men-kissing.html
It was published back in April, so you may have seen it already. If not, you've probably heard of a similar story. While I am not a person who thinks that victims should ever be blamed for crimes committed against them, I also think that we all have a responsibility to lock our doors securely. For example, if you leave a key under the mat at the front door of your house, all day, every day, and every time you walk up to the door, you use that key to open the door and then place it back under the mat, you should expect that at some point, someone else is going to "borrow" your key to gain access to your home. Truly, if this is what you are doing, why bother even having a key? That really isn't any different from writing your password on a sticky note and tucking it under your keyboard.
About 7 years ago, I made a transition from a high school teacher to a technology coach. I was a prolific user of technology in the classroom, but I wasn't always good at security. Many of my early passwords were only five or six characters, all lower case. Any math teacher will tell you that every time you add a character, or variety to your password you increase the number of permutations, meaning it will be more difficult to guess your password. Moreover, many password cracking tools are available free of charge. These tools are the lock and key equivalent of giving a hacker the opportunity to attempt using thousands of keys in the lock in a matter of seconds. Another important point is that you should not use the same password for multiple services. Sometimes it makes sense to reuse a password, but if you use one over and over again, if one is ever compromised, say by a leak or a hacker, then all of your accounts will be vulnerable. It isn't a bad idea to create passwords that are so difficult you may not be able to learn them overnight. Keeping a list of your passwords with that list of credit card numbers and contact info, which you probably don't actually have, in case your wallet is ever lost or stolen isn't a bad idea. If you don't like that idea, you can keep an electronic database. To make this easier, here are a few tools that can help you keep track of your passwords. Some of them will even let you store credit card numbers and contact information in case your wallet is ever lost or stolen...
Here is a good review that describes a few popular password managers, which could help you to create and maintain more secure, robust passwords. http://lifehacker.com/5529133/five-best-password-managers
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