| Password
Safety
If you've been on the internet for any length
of time, you've collected about a zillion accounts and their
associated passwords. Personally, I have over 500 different
active accounts all over the web and probably a thousand more
inactive or unused accounts.
Most people don't have anywhere near that number, but I'll
bet you have at least a couple of dozen. Let's see, you've
probably got an account at your bank's website, a few credit
cards, egroups, perhaps a few webrings, your ISP, email, hotmail,
perhaps AOL, and a few others that you don't use as often.
If you are like most people, you cannot even come close to
remembering it all. In fact, a lot of people simply create
the same account name and password everywhere ... and that's
extremely dangerous.
Let's say a hacker figures out your AOL account and password.
If every other account that you own has the same username
and password ... well, you get the idea. Now all he has to
do is figure out where you have accounts ... but he could
just try it at a number of say, banking sites or credit card
sites, and perhaps he will get lucky. You may make it even
easier for him by mentioning your sites in your AOL emails
or on your web site.
So how do you protect yourself? First, make sure your passwords
are all different. Don't use the same password on all of your
accounts ... and try and use a few different usernames if
you can.
Next, be sure and choose some password that are not so easy
to guess. Avoid names (husband, wife, kids, cats and so on),
social security and phone numbers, addresses and anything
else that someone could figure out if they knew anything about
you.
Also avoid some common words. Did you know that the most common
password is simply "password". "God" is
also common, especially amoung system managers. Avoid common
words such as these.
All right! Now you've got all of your 30 or so accounts set
up with different account names and different difficult-to-guess
passwords. How are you going to remember them all?
Rule number one is be prepared for disaster. Write down all
of your usernames and passwords in a notebook (yes, on paper).
No, really. You need to do this because computers sometimes
die, and when they do it's at the worst possible time. You
may not even have a backup, and if you loose all of your passwords
you could lose a lot.
Keep this notebook safe, perhaps locked in a drawer. It's
probably a good idea to keep a copy in your safe deposit box
- so someone can get to your accounts after you die, perhaps,
or if you are in the hospital or something else happens.
Now keep a computer record also, which you will maintain more
up-to-date. I like using a program called Password Tracker,
although you could just as easily use Excel or even notepad.
The idea is to record all of your account information as you
create or change it. Password Tracker is great because it
also gives you tools to enter the data for you.
Another good product is Gator (I use both Password Tracker
and Gator) which can fill in forms and automatically log in
accounts as you surf to them.
Be sure and keep backups of the Gator and Password Tracker
databases ... believe me, you don't want to lose this information
if you can avoid it.
By the way, I've learned to avoid the automatic account and
password features of Internet Explorer. Why? Because there
is no way to save, print out or get to the information. Thus,
if the computer dies I lose my passwords with no way to recover.
I don't use Netscape much, but I would guess the same thing
applies.
To conclude, use different account names and passwords for
your various web sites. Record them on paper and store that
somewhere safe. In addition, you can use programs link Excel,
Gator and Password Tracker to save all of this information
for you. Finally, and very importantly, be very prepared for
disaster.
About The Author
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster
of Internet Tips And Secrets. This website includes over 1,000
free articles to improve your internet profits, enjoyment
and knowledge.
Web Site Address: http://www.internet-tips.net
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