How important is a good password? Very. Just think about all the information that is important to you that is protected by a password. Your bank account, your email, and your access to the company network. You would think that people would have very secure passwords right? Wrong. A surprising amount of computer users do not have a GOOD password. What makes up a GOOD password? One that uses letters, numbers, upper and lowercase, symbols (#@%+=), and is longer then 8 characters. At the same time being easy enough for the user to remember to where they don't have to write it down and stick it on their monitor (what's the point of a password at that point?)
For example: 1Hundred+200=300
That is a very secure and GOOD password. It is long. It is very easy to remember. Who can't remember that 100 + 200 = 300 ? The password also has numbers, letters, upper and lowercase, and symbols. Contrary to some people's belief a random password like 1kli883h is not as secure as the example above. For one because it is hard to remember and most users would have to write it down somewhere. Second it is only 8 characters long. An important factor in a password is length. The longer the password the harder it is to crack either with a program or by guessing. If you are the type of person who HAS to put it on a sticky at their desk just put "100 plus 200 equals" and set your password to 1Hundred+200=299. No one is going to guess the wrong answer!
Never ever use your birthday, children's names, your own name, or social security number. All are easy to guess and the last one would be a nightmare if someone was to get ahold of it.
If your company currently does not have a password policy in place then one needs to be put in. There is too much sensitive data for any business small or large to have it out in the open because Danny has a blank password or it is 'danny2007'. If you are a Microsoft shop you can use Group Policy to force complex passwords. Or you can just explain the importance of a GOOD password to users. They need a good password both in the office and for personal computer use.
Tomorrow's blog entry is going to be about the Softchoice LA Roadshow that I attended yesterday. What an awesome event. I wanted to go in a bit of detail about it and outline some product I personally found interesting so I wanted to do it when I had a while to think.
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