There was a time, not too long ago, when I’d tell the average home user that unless they were doing day trading or on financial service sites or banks that they really didn’t need a password for their Microsoft Windows or Mac. That was then — this is now.
Do you have a Facebook page? Are you on LinkedIn? Are you checking any sort of business email account? Are you using a credit or debit card for on-line purchases? If so, you’ve established an on-line persona which is semantically equal to your good name. Your reputation is your most valuable possession so protecting it is vital. It deserves to be protected and having a strong password is your first line of defense.
Creating a Password:
Lets’ begin by defining what is and isn’t an effective password. It is not the simplest and easiest one to remember. Identity thieves, hackers, and crackers always start with password, password1 and 123456. What you want to consider in selecting your password is that it should be unique, something memorable or significant to you. Suggestions for a memorable-to you, but difficult for others to decipher include thinking of a phase or a movie title and using just the first letter for each word. So, in this example, FmD-Idgad, translates to Rhett Butler’s famous parting comment to Scarlett O’Hara. For extra security you could add a special character into the mix. A strong, clever password is great but it does you absolutely no good if you forget it and didn’t think ahead to either write it down and or make a password recovery disk and store it in a safe place. Remember the story of Ali Babba and the Forty Thieves? Our hero stumbled when he forgot which bread ingredient cane after, “Open….” So don’t be like that guy in the Arabian Nights!
Secondly, let’s go into password variations that you shouldn’t use: your birthday, your significant other’s birthday or anniversaries. That’s because that information is a matter of public record and easily searchable. Even worse, there’s a plethora of information on your Facebook page just begging to be misused! Never, ever use your private statistics in creating a password. Just like an actual NYPD No Parking sign said, quite succinctly, “Don’t Even Think About Parking Here.” Anything available by searching open records isn’t secure.
And now because the devil is in the details here are the steps to follow.
- Passwords must be at least six characters long.
- They shouldn’t be longer than 12 characters.
- They should contain: upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and/or symbols. This mix will stop the automatic password breaking software called, “crackers,” and give the garden variety computer hacker fits because there are 7 quadrillion combinations.
Now, after you do that you should create a password recovery disk on your computer. This is just in case you forget your password or need somebody to get into your computer for them to do something important, such as, your medical power-of-attorney or to settle your estate.
Mac Passwords Here’s How:
- Click the Apple icon in the upper left portion of the screen and choose System Preferences.
- Under the System section, choose Accounts.
- Select Login Options.
- Using the drop down, change Automatic login to Disabled then select how you want the prompt to appear – as a list of users or a prompt for both name and password.
- Now click the Guest Account and uncheck the boxes that read Allow guests to login to this computer and Allow guests to connect to shared folders.
- To save these changes, just close the Accounts window.
Making a password recovery disk on Windows 7 (which is what most user have)
And it works the same way on Windows 8. The odd duck exception is Windows XP where you still have to go through the Control Panel to get to User Accounts.