Password Tips
Lately, several of my friends have had one or more of their social networks hacked. None of us are immune. The best we can do is to change our passwords often.
Back when I worked for a large company I had a dozen different places that required passwords before I could access the sites. I got pretty creative coming up with passwords since the system wouldn't allow us to use even similar passwords to what we had used before.
Some of the things I've tried include:
• Foreign words
• Unusual names
• Words spelled backwards
• Made up words only me and my husband would know
• Code words or code numbers that mean something only to me
I have a lot of passwords. I keep them all in a nondescript notebook that's always within reach. While I was writing this post, I decided to count how many passwords I used. Apparently, I need passwords for a whopping one hundred and twenty-nine sites!
Scary, isn't it?
Do you have any tips for creating a secure password? Have you ever been hacked? What did you do?
:passing the fairy dust: Here's hoping none of us ever have to go through that nightmare.
Back when I worked for a large company I had a dozen different places that required passwords before I could access the sites. I got pretty creative coming up with passwords since the system wouldn't allow us to use even similar passwords to what we had used before.
Some of the things I've tried include:
• Foreign words
• Unusual names
• Words spelled backwards
• Made up words only me and my husband would know
• Code words or code numbers that mean something only to me
I have a lot of passwords. I keep them all in a nondescript notebook that's always within reach. While I was writing this post, I decided to count how many passwords I used. Apparently, I need passwords for a whopping one hundred and twenty-nine sites!
Scary, isn't it?
Do you have any tips for creating a secure password? Have you ever been hacked? What did you do?
:passing the fairy dust: Here's hoping none of us ever have to go through that nightmare.
Comments
I still have to look up passwords too.
Never been hacked...yet.
And yes, I have a little notebook too :)
Lately, I've been getting really strange spam, though. The e-mail address is unknown, but the signature at the bottom is someone I do know (one was signed with my sister's name, but didn't come from her). I guess spammers must think enough people are dumb enough to fall for clicking on the link!
Now anything even smells like it's been touched, I change my password. Like you, they end being words and numbers significant only to me or my family (and never things I've talked about online).
Other times I'll get emails from people I know with porn links or banks.
I usually contact them and let them know their account had been hacked.
If I have to go on another computer I won't have the spreadsheet available. Or what if I have to go to a public place for internet service? I open myself up for a clever hacker to piggyback on my signal and browse my files.
For me, it's paper all the way.
And you make an excellent point. The words I use in passwords never appear online--even casually.
I've had my Twitter hacked before, but never my Facebook. The Twitter account had sent out direct messages to all my followers with a link in it asking them to click to see a picture of me or something like that.
I had a few followers contact me and tell me I was hacked, because they knew it was not in my behavior to do such a thing. But I also had some people unfollow me after sending me scathing messages telling me that it was rude to do such a thing. :(
I think it's unfortunate there are people out there who think this sort of hack is beneficial to them in some way, but it's a huge pain!
It was wrong of them to castigate you unjustly.
I follow someone on Twitter who get hacked. I emailed her to let her know, but I never unfollowed her. It wasn't her fault.
My passwords are very much things that only make sense to me, even my husband thinks they are kind of crazy if I have to tell him a password to get into something on my computer. :-)
Twitter sends me all kinds of nasty DM messages from people whose accounts get hacked, I just delete them after letting the poor user on Twitter know they have a problem. Same thing with folks whose email sends me things I know doggone well does not come from my contacts, they too get contacted but not unfollowed or deleted.
I've been using the notebook method myself.
Most of the hacking occurs after a user clicks on a link. Treat all links as suspicious and don't click blindly.
I try to make my passwords a combination of letters, symbols and numbers since that increases the pool depth the "password thief" has to go to guess for me. But it still happens. And there are people who click those links. Paranoia tends to stay my mouse from clicking something remotely fishy.
Re: clicking blindly
That's just common sense, isn't it? Or maybe not, since it must be lucrative for hackers to keep using that tact.
Paranoia has saved me from many a disaster. LOL.
It's not worth it. My hard drive contracted a virus while surfing legitimate sites. It was a nightmare. I take precautions and it still bit me in the you-know-where.
I have a long list of passwords too. Sigh...why can't people be honest.
Re: Sigh...why can't people be honest.
I often wonder this myself.
And like everyone else...I have a list! Actually, two lists. One on paper and one in a password protected excel sheet, LOL
I used to store passwords on my work computer, but then someone's laptop was stolen and we were ordered not to keep any passwords on our machines.