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naples mac help

managing

passwords
I t was just a few years ago that you could use the same password
for everything, do you remember those days?

Since I last wrote about managing passwords in 2013, the world
has changed its views of password management. Some of the
password and security breaches that have been revealed in the
past few years included large entities like Facebook, Target,
LinkedIn, Google, Yahoo! and Twitter to name just a few.

THERE ARE TWO BASIC RULES FOR PASSWORD
MANAGEMENT IN TODAY’S WORLD

1. The password must be complex and difficult to guess.
2. The password must be easily remembered.

While the first rule is necessary, the second is nearly impossible Use a different password for each of your important accounts, like
with the complex passwords that are becoming the norm. I will your email and online banking accounts. Reusing passwords is risky. If
give you some tips on how to implement both rules without someone figures out your password for one account, that person could
losing your mind. potentially gain access to your email, address, and even your money.
Your email should also have it’s own unique password as if a hacker
Whenever there’s a big data breach and user passwords are gets access to this, they can use it to “reset” your passwords from your
exposed, security companies always make a list of the most other accounts.
common passwords people were using. The five most common
passwords of recent breaches were “123456,” “123456789,” Using numbers, symbols and mix of upper and lower case letters in
“password,” “password123,” and “12345678.” your password makes it harder for someone to guess your password.
For example, an eight-character password with numbers, symbols and
Obviously, you shouldn’t use those or anything similar, but mixed-case letters is harder to guess because it has 30,000 more possible
millions of people still do! The same goes for special dates; combinations than an eight-character password with only lower case
names of spouses, children, sports teams, relatives or pets; or any letters.
password using the full name of the service you’re making the
password for. (such as ‘amazon1234’) Now, if you’re like me and have dozens of accounts online, even using
this system can be too much. That’s why a password manager like
Despite what you see in the movies and on TV, professional 1Password can be a great help. It keeps your passwords secure, and you
hackers never sit down at a computer and try to guess your only need to remember the one to open it. Plus, it’s a local program
password. Instead, hackers get millions of passwords at once so you aren’t uploading your passwords to the Internet, and they can
from company data breaches or other sources. Usually these also be securely kept on your portable devices if you choose. 1Password
passwords are ‘hashed’ so they’re just a huge string of letters and also has a great random password generator that will create a complex
numbers. However, if enough passwords are ‘hashed’ the same password and remember it for you!
way, hackers can figure out the pattern and decrypt many of
them. In fact, with modern computers, they can usually crack Don’t leave notes or books with your passwords to various sites on
tens of thousands of passwords in a matter of hours.

98 Jeff Bohr | Naples Mac Help
Life in Naples | January 2016