Password Safety

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If you've been on the internet for any length of time, ...
about a zillion accounts and their ... ...
I have over 500 ... active accounts all overthe web and If you've been on the internet for any length of time, you'vecollected about a zillion accounts and their associated passwords.Personally, I have over 500 different active accounts all overthe web and probably a thousand more inactive or unused accounts.Most people don't have anywhere near that number, but I'll bet youhave at least a couple of dozen.
Let's see, you've probably got anaccount 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 toremembering it all. In fact, a lot of people simply create the sameaccount name and password everywhere ...
and that's extremelydangerous.Let's say a hacker figures out your AOL account and password. Ifevery other account that you own has the same username andpassword ...
well, you get the idea. Now all he has to do is figureout where you have accounts ...
but he could just try it at a numberof say, banking sites or credit card sites, and perhaps he will getlucky. You may make it even easier for him by mentioning your sitesin your AOL emails or on your web site.So how do you protect yourself? First, make sure your passwords areall different.
Don't use the same password on all of youraccounts ... 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 securityand phone numbers, addresses and anything else that someone couldfigure out if they knew anything about you.Also avoid some common words.
Did you know that the most commonpassword is simply "password". "God" is also common, especiallyamoung system managers.
Avoid common words such as these.All right! Now you've got all of your 30 or so accounts set upwith different account names and different difficult-to-guesspasswords. How are you going to remember them all?Rule number one is be prepared for disaster.
Write down all ofyour usernames and passwords in a notebook (yes, on paper). No,really.
You need to do this because computers sometimes die, andwhen they do it's at the worst possible time. You may not even havea 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 probablya good idea to keep a copy in your safe deposit box - so someonecan get to your accounts after you die, perhaps, or if you are inthe hospital or something else happens.Now keep a computer record also, which you will maintain moreup-to-date. I like using a program called Password Tracker, althoughyou could just as easily use Excel or even notepad.
The idea is torecord all of your account information as you create or change it.Password Tracker is great because it also gives you tools to enterthe data for you.A product to avoid is Gator (I use both Password Tracker). Thisprogram is handy for saving passwords and filling in forms, but itis spyware and transmits details of your surfing habits to acorporate database.Be sure and keep backups of the Password Tracker database ...believe me, you don't want to lose this information if you canavoid it.By the way, I've learned to avoid the automatic account and passwordfeatures of Internet Explorer.
Why? Because there is no way to save,print out or get to the information. Thus, if the computer dies Ilose 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 yourvarious web sites. Record them on paper and store that somewheresafe.
In addition, you can use programs link Excel, Gator andPassword Tracker to save all of this information for you. Finally,and very importantly, be very prepared for disaster.
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