If you feel the same way as me about having to remember lots of long passwords then you are not going to like this tip but it is a sad fact of life (at least if you want to use computers and the internet) that you need a good password. Why? Because there are dishonest people out there who think that you should be working for their living. These dishonest people have a number of ways of getting access to your computer to ‘spy’ on your confidential information and then to use your computer to gain access to other people’s computers. In simple terms they can put computer programs on your computer that can track every key that you type and detect things like your credit card details and other personal information that can be used to steal your identity or take over your Facebook and Email accounts. You need a good password because these criminals can use programs that can automatically guess all the easy passwords in a matter of minutes. To use an easy password is to be a sitting duck. Once they have access to your Facebook and Email accounts they can then send messages to all your friends/contacts asking them to send them money on your behalf. It really is worth the effort to use good passwords.
What is a Good Password?
A good password is one that you can remember but is hard to guess. It should be longer than 10 characters (letters, or numbers) and it should be different to all your other passwords. (Please don’t use the same password for your email and Facebook accounts!) It should have a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers and (if allowed) contain a special character. It should not be your car registration number, your date of birth, your child’s name or anything that can be read by someone publically on your Facebook wall or profile.
Deliberately misspell words and use numbers in place of vowels. You can use 4 instead of A, 3 for E, 1 for I, 0 (zero) for O or make up your own code.
Here is an example password: d#rAin1nSpa1n
(Whatever you do, don’t copy that password because it is on a public website and could easily be added to the list of passwords that hackers use, so make up your own short phrase).
For this example I have taken a short phrase, ”The rain in Spain” and misspelled it by removing the spaces, replacing the letter ‘i’ with the number ‘1’ in two places and replaced the word ‘the’ with the letter ‘d’. Note that instead of using and uppercase ‘R’ in rain, I made the ‘A’ uppercase just to mix things up a little and make it a little harder to guess and then I used a ‘#’ symbol just to make the password a little more complicated. Longer passwords that use misspelled phrases are much harder to guess.
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Good Practice
Change your passwords regularly, at least every few months. If you can’t remember different passwords then try to add codes to the password like FBd#rAin1nSpa1n for Facebook and GMd#rAin1nSpa1n (except don’t use FB because that is too obvious, make up a code that is unique for you and easy for you to remember).
When you change your password, if you really must use similar passwords then you could try adding extra numbers or characters to the end of it
d#rAin1nSpa1n0!, d#rAin1nSpa1n0@, d#rAin1nSpa1n0# …
Don’t store all your passwords where they can easily be found, like in a notepad next to your computer or on your cell phone or in a plain text document on your computer.
I know that all sounds like a lot of effort but cybercrime is not going away anytime soon and you need to be on your guard or someone will gladly take advantage of you. The more of these rules you follow the less likely you will find your accounts have been hacked.
Next time I will show you how to check that your Facebook account is secure and tell you what information you should hide in your profile.
Do you have any password tips? Please leave a comment if you do.
You might have Facebook friends that are unaware of the scams going around so please share this link.
