Valuables used to be guarded in caves, then in bank vaults and now with passwords. For just about anyone on the planet, valuable funds, documents, and photographs are kept safe by some unique, clever, and repeatable passwords that we often create on the fly. Has our security progressed? A recent study of 32 million real-life online passwords indicated that of all the “secret” passwords, the one most commonly used is “123456.” The 2nd most common password was “12345.” Others passwords in the Top 10 included “iloveyou,” “princess,” and even “password.” Unfortunately using such obvious passwords are nearly invitations for hackers and thieves to log into your valuables and steal all the contents.
Even if you do use a sophisticated password, one will hardly suffice for all accounts. Some have minimum character lengths, maximum character lengths, some require alpha-numeric’s and some even require symbols. Devising an effective and memorable password is possible and numerous methods exist. You can use visual keyboard patterns, swap numbers and symbols for letters or for words (for example use “@” for “a” or “0” for “o.” Another idea is to take a phrase and use the first letter such as “This little piggy went to market” becomes “tlpwtm.”
The result is that we have to keep track of dozens of our passwords — I alone have more than 100! I know some people that have their passwords written on a piece of paper they keep in their home. Not only is this dangerous, you cannot access it if you are not at home. Therefore, I recommend keeping a listing of all your passwords in an encrypted file in a browser email. This allows you to access the entire password list from any location with internet access. There also are other solutions such as RoboForm.com, where one diamond-hard password unlocks all the rest. Make your password security as tight as one of our SKOLNIK drums!