There are some unspoken rules we follow in life, such as don’t use the same BBQ tools for both cooked and raw meat, or don’t eat while you’re driving...But it seems there also some rules which we know we should follow, but for some reason don’t. When it comes to choosing passwords, convenience is a dominant factor, and many of us willingly leave ourselves easy prey for online hackers
I’ve observed my customer’s habits for years and one thing’s for sure, they always take the easy route. Sadly, ease and convenience are the polar opposite to security. For example, there’s absolutely no hope if your password is simply a common dictionary word like ‘monkey,’ ‘starfish,’ or (worst of all) ‘password.’ Similarly, adding numbers or special characters on the end of an everyday word may seem clever, but sadly not.
The cleverest folk use long and complicated passwords such as ‘Ktddi&X481cVt,’ which most of you will shudder at the thought of remembering, but it’s a thousand times more secure than your name followed by a year of birth. (Over time hackers have picked up on such habits and can easily break into all your different accounts, especially if you use this same password for everything!)
The good news is, there is now an easy (and secure!) way to remember all your passwords no matter how lengthy or complex, and this comes in the form of Last Pass, a password vault which requires just one good password to access all your others. It is a safe and highly effective way to not only remember several passwords but to vary the passwords you use for different sites. If you value your online security and computer files then sign up, and stop putting yourself at risk for the sake of a few letters and numbers!
