Best Protection for your Passwords
Fox News.com offered an article by Marshall Loeb, How To Protect Your Passwords, which provides some very good advice for ensuring hackers and keystroke trackers can’t easily guess your passwords. Loeb’s article reports that God, Love, Sex and Money are the four most common passwords people use making it very easy for identity theives to access your information.
Using birthdates, children’s names, family names, etc. are just as easy especially when coupled with the common words listed above. By using these names and dates, you are also giving theives additional information about yourself and your family. Tips for protecting yourself include:
Never using any personal information as a password or security codes, advises SecurityStats.com, a website that collects statistics on Internet security. That includes your name, family names, birthdates, addresses, telephone numbers, street names, car license plate numbers, etc.
Use a combination of letters, numbers and special characters. Avoid using dates (Aug2001) or simply tacking an extra number to a common word (password1).
Don’t write your password down anywhere.
Change your password often, say, every month or so.
Being pro-active by limiting and protecting access to your personal data is your best protection against identity theft. For more information and to read Loeb’s complete article, click here.