Volume 1 - Issue 8 - ICTACT.IN

Tech TipsPasswordsThe First Step to SafetyMost people don’t put a lot of thoughtinto creating a password. It’s usually easiestjust to create a short, easy-to-rememberpassword, or even just to use the samepassword for every account you have.After all, the average person probablywon’t be able to guess your password.However, hackers often use passwordcrackingsoftware that can keep testingmany different passwords until they findthe correct one, and they can easily crackweak passwords. By creating strong passwords,you can greatly reduce the chancethat your personal or financial informationwill be stolen.Common Password MistakesMany people create passwords basedon their spouse’s name, a hobby, or a simplepattern, since those types of passwordsare easy to remember. Unfortunately, theyare also very easy for hackers to guess. Tocreate a strong password, you will need toavoid these types of common mistakes.It seems like every other day there is a newsocial website or service that you have tosign up for and start a new account. Whilethis can be great, it is hard to keep track ofall your different passwords.The simple solution for this problemis to just have one password for everything.However, this leads to an incrediblylarge security risk. It’s unreasonable toexpect any person to remember complexpasswords, so the best solution is to get apassword manager.What is a Password Manager?Password managers are services thatallow you to securely save all your passwordsand keep them safe using one masterpassword. While having a master passwordmay seem like it defeats the purposeof having multiple passwords, think aboutit this way: if your Facebook account getshacked and you have one password foreverything, you will have to change yourJune 2013 | 39