One of the most important IT security components is a secure password. Unfortunately, users continue to create passwords based on a family member’s name like their spouse, children, or even their dog. Sometimes even the word “password” is used. This is not secure.
In today’s social networking world (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter), passwords created from names of family members or other personal information are vulnerable. Using the following creates a security risk: where you were born, your birthday, and anniversaries. None of these are a good choice for a strong password. Using easy to guess words and numbers like these opens the doors to cyber criminals.
When creating a new password, length is the most important thing. Combine three or four words so it’s memorable. The perfect length of a password is 12 or more characters. Random word placement is very effective. Make sure the random word placement is as unguessable as possible. An example password is “star sleeve outlook” which is 17 characters without spaces. Add a special character or number to increase its length and also its security.
Even better is to have an application do the heavy lifting for you when generating and storing secure passwords. The LastPass tool is free and automatically generates and saves secure passwords for you. It can be installed into your Internet Browser.
If you have any questions about what Salmon Bay Technology can do to increase your IT Security, call us at (206) 905-9520 or email us.