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1. Why Password?
Your computer and the websites you frequently visit contain a great deal of personal information about you. It is important, therefore to ensure that you do not allow your personal details to get into the wrong hands.
We do so much online these days: banking, shopping and social networking have become everyday activities. There are nasty people out there who want to steal from you. Not just your money, but your very identity. It is therefore very necessary to protect yourself by restricting access to your personal data. This is where passwords come in. They make sure that your personal details are only available to you.
2. Why a Strong Password?
We all like to keep things simple. Passwords can be a pain. So let us make it easy to remember and not complicate matters. Why not use the same password for all our safe sites. It is too much hassle remembering all those different passwords, after all.
Passwords can be seen as the weakest link between your data and those who could most benefit from access to your personal details. Once the password is cracked they are in. If you use the same password for different applications, your system is vulnerable, along with your online banking and credit card accounts.
Examples of weak passwords include your name, username, date of birth, names of your children, even your car registration number. Paul123 would not be a safeguard against my online bank account, for example. Hackers can use programs that try to guess your password by browsing through your files to search for personal information.
Criminals use a number of methods to identify passwords. Dictionary search trawls through online dictionaries to come up with a match to your password. Brute force attacks try every possible combination of keystrokes that can be used in connection with a user name. Phishing, official looking emails purportedly from banks, for example, seek to obtain passwords or PIN numbers from unsuspecting victims.
3. What is a Strong Password?
Many websites demand passwords that exceed seven or eight digits, including letters and numbers. Security experts advise even longer passwords, 14 characters are considered sensible. Experts also suggest that you mix upper and lower case letters and utilise characters in lieu of some letters. The key is to use a password that is simple enough for you to remember but no one else, even your close family and friends would be able to identify.
4. Further assistance
Microsoft has a very good application that rates the strength or weakness of your chosen password.
Password checker can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/yourself/password/checker.mspx
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Enabling this is essentially the same as storing passwords in plain text which is insecure and not recommended. The purpose of this policy setting is to provide support for applications that use protocols that require knowledge of the user's password for authentication purposes. Enabling this policy setting should be a last resort used only in extreme situation where no alternative exists and application requirements outweigh the need to protect password information.
Store Passwords Using Reversible Encryption must be enabled when using CHAP (Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol)authentication through remote access or Internet Authentication Services (IAS). It is also required when using Digest Authentication in Internet Information Services (IIS).
Default: Disabled
The first step in securing your wireless network is the same as the first step for just about everything else in computers and computer networking -- always change the defaults. Any attacker can find out what the default username and password is for a given program or device in just a few minutes. The defaults may be great for letting you connect and get the device or program up and running quickly, but in order to keep snoopers or would-be attackers out, you must change the defaults as soon as possible.
Often, the default settings are so common that an attacker doesn't even need to do any research. Many vendors use Admin or Administrator as the username and something like "admin" or "password" as the password. A couple of "educated guesses" and an attacker could infiltrate your wireless router or access point.
Refer to the owner's manual for your particular device to learn how to access the administration and configuration screen, and change the default password as soon as you set the device set up. You can also check out our step-by-step instructions changing the default password on a network router. We also have guidance on how to choose a good, secure password.
Some vendors don't provide a means for changing the username, but if it is possible you should also change the default username. Knowing the username gives an attacker half of the information they need to gain access so leaving it set to the default is a security concern. If you can change it, make it something that won't be easily guessed. Don't use Admin or Administrator and avoid using simple usernames like your own first or last name.
For the curious hacker who has somehow gained access to your computer system this is the equivalent of locking your door and leaving the key under the doormat. Without even resorting to any specialized tools a hacker can discover your basic personal information- name, children’s names, birthdates, pets names, etc. and try all of those out as potential passwords.
To create a secure password that is easy for you to remember, follow these simple steps: Do not use personal information. You should never use personal information as a part of your password. It is very easy for someone to guess things like your last name, pet's name, child's birth date and other similar details. Do not use real words. There are tools available to help attackers guess your password. With today's computing power, it doesn't take long to try every word in the dictionary and find your password, so it is best if you do not use real words for your password. Mix different character types. You can make a password much more secure by mixing different types of characters. Use some uppercase letters along with lowercase letters, numbers and even special characters such as '&' or '%'. Use a passphrase. Rather than trying to remember a password created using various character types which is also not a word from the dictionary, you can use a passphrase. Think up a sentence or a line from a song or poem that you like and create a password using the first letter from each word.
For example, rather than just having a password like 'yr$1Hes', you could take a sentence such as "I like to read the About.com Internet / Network Security web site" and convert it to a password like 'il2rtA!nsws". By substituting the number '2' for the word 'to' and using an exclamation point in place of the 'i' for 'Internet', you can use a variety of character types and create a secure password that is hard to crack, but much easier for you to remember.
Use a password management tool. Another way to store and remember passwords securely is to use some sort of password management tool. These tools maintain a list of usernames and passwords in encrypted form. Some will even automatically fill in the username and password information on sites and applications.Using the tips above will help you create passwords that are more secure, but you should still also follow the following tips: Use different passwords. You should usea different username and password for each login or application you are trying to protect. That way if one gets compromised the others are still safe. Another approach which is less secure, but provides a fair tradeoff between security and convenience, is to use one username and password for sites and applications that don't need the extra security, but use unique usernames and more secure passwords on sites such as your bank or credit card companies. Change your passwords. You should change your password at least every 30 to 60 days. You should also not re-use a password for at least a year. Enforce stronger passwords: Rather than relying on every user of the computer to understand and follow the instructions above, you can configure Microsot Windows password policies so that Windows will not accept passwords that don't meet the minimum requirements.
