Blog 3: Password Management

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In my effort to increase security awareness and obtain a cultural acceptance, I wanted to bring a focus on the importance of password management. Passwords are the keys to the doors to accessing the majority of our data that resides within. This data can be exceptionally important and should always be protected. Therefore, it is essential to learn effective password management techniques to keep you and your data a bit safer.

Since most of us have several accounts spread out over the Internet that hold various amounts of information, such as financial, healthcare, and educational data, we should have more than one associated password. If you utilize the exact password for several accounts, you are at more risk if an account were breached. Therefore, ensure you utilize a different password for each account you log into to offset the opportunity for password guessing attempts.

Speaking of password guessing, you should NEVER use something related to yourself, such as a pet or child's name, favorite sports team, hobby, etc. in your passwords. By doing so provides a means for a malicious individual to profile you to allow a better opportunity at a password guessing attempt. Further, your password should be a minimum of 8 characters, including upper/lower case with at least one number and character. This will make it more difficult for a brute force attempt if a malicious user is utilizing software as a tool.

So, I bet you cannot wait to change all of your 100 plus passwords you have to begin your quest for effective password management, right?  Ouch! I believe I just heard the most sarcastic sigh EVER from my readers (is that even possible?)!  Well, lucky for us, this is where I bring up a couple of options that could potentially make your quest much easier.  Allow me to introduce you to the world of password management tools.

The two services that come to mind are Dashlane and LastPass, although many more exist. Both of these services can provide you with access to all of the "doors" that hold your data. They provide extensive security features, including two-factor authentication and high level encryption.  Instead of remember hundreds of passwords, you need to only remember your "master" password, which you DO NOT want to forget or share. Even more, these services have the capability to create secure passwords for you. Both of these can assist you on your quest to secure and effective password management efforts. Best of all, you can give them a try for free!!

Thank you for reading!  Until next time, remember that you don't have to become a victim of a threat to become aware of a threat!