Common Passwords Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

How many passwords do you have to key-in throughout the day? There are times when you have to key-in a number of passwords – from various websites to your office and home computers to even your ATM and mobile device(s). Businesses large and small rely heavily on their passwords to prevent sensitive data from being hacked. Having a poorly created password may leave you vulnerable to identity theft, financial loss and what not. We often come across embarrasing news of hackers breaking into some celebrity's account and posting fake information.

These sort of accidents just don't happen with celebrities only. They happen to people like you and me. Getting a complex password is the best way out.

Never forget the most important passwords!

Mistakes

Location – Creating a post-it of the password of your account and 'hiding' it under the keyboard is equal to keeping no passwords at all! A convenient way out is by memorizing a password and noting it down on a place (mobile phone?) which is even password-protected.

Complexity – Short and simple passwords are easy to hack into. There are a number of us who often provide small passwords which can be easily guessed by hackers. "albert' "12345″ just isn't right!

Common words – Hackers normally begin with dictionaries in English and other languages when trying to guess your password. They first run the combinations of the most common words and if you happen to have them, you are totaled!

Same Passwords for all Accounts – When you are thinking about passwords, you keep a few combination of passwords for all of your accounts. This may severely backfire! If a hacker hacks one of your accounts, then there is high chance that he/she will try it on all of your accounts.

Personal Information – The least you can do is by giving a password with your personal information. Address, Spouse name, Social security number are a strict no-no. Pet names and nick names are also a strict no-no.

Not updating passwords – There are many of us who simply haven't updated their passwords since the time they have created their accounts. One needs to update the passwords every 60 days or so.

Solution

Here are the tips to create passwords which will never give away. Have a look!

Idea 1  -

• Create a password by first remembering a sentence. (I love my India)
• Follow it up by removing spaces. (IlovemyIndia)
• Then turn the words in shorthand, numbers and others. (ilovemyindya)
• End the newly formed sentence with four digits which are of significance to you. (il0vemyindya1988)

This is just an example. Be free to experiment with longer sentences.

More ideas -

While the above idea may sound easy, some of these idea may be a bit tough. But remember, it's all about creating a strong account, isn't it?

• Choose two words and join them with any number or symbol. For example – Lovely&twitter
• Create a sequence of your family members' names and their age but just use the first two letters. For example –  (Sam,Helen,David,Scott) (59,57,12,20) – Sa59He57Da12Sc20
• Remove vowels from your long sentence and replace them with numbers. For example – IwantaMercedes – 1w5n0t5M1rc9d8s8 (The numbers are birthday)

While the above were ways and means to create a strong password, it shouldn't be too much of asking if you follow the below mentioned points as well -

• Never give anyone your password – Be it your spouse, children or anyone else, giving your password just isn't the right idea.
• Never store your password in the browser, more so if it's a public computer. A no-brainer.
• If you can't do without writing it down somewhere, be sure to keep it in a hidden place and once you memorize it, don't just toss it in the bin, shred the note and!
• No matter how important the mail looks, never send across your password in an e-mail.

These are definitely not the sole guidelines for you to follow. You can create your own methods for that perfect password as well! So, how do you create a strong password? Share it in the comments below!