staying safe online
22 Feb 2012
|
reflections
,
wellbeing
Living in the computer age has supposedly simplified our lives, but it has also created more than a few problems! From the online banking services we use to the myriad websites we scour for useful information, most now require us to register by providing personal information and choosing a password.
Passwords are the primary method of providing security on the Internet and remembering them can become a real issue. If you use the same password you leave yourself vulnerable to those who try and “crack” your password codes for fun or fraud. If you do the right thing and have a different password for each access, how do you remember them AND keep them safe?
To guard against this we suggest a few key tips:
- Decide which of your passwords really need to be secure, ie. which ones could you suffer from financially or personally if they were compromised.
- Make these passwords more complicated by having at least eight characters, upper case and lower case letters and use numbers, alphabetic and non-alphabetic characters e.g. YT6ph&gf. Also don’t forget to change your password frequently so perhaps create a code to make the new passwords easier to generate and remember.
- The remaining passwords can be kept fairly simple (but not too obvious).
Safe travelling on the worldwide web!