Friday, September 6, 2013

Password Safety!!!

Sorry, I'm a nerd. I read and study certain things like a madwoman lol, and I have 3 notebooks of notes on hacking.. NO I'm not a hacker, not claiming to be one, not in the least, but hack to learn is my motto. Sure, if you want, I could possibly hack your computer for you, to let ya know what you're doing wrong, but, that's illegal.
So, anyway, after studying John the Ripper, and Cain and Abel, ( password hacking programs), I have come to these, common lil tidbits of advice for a regular internet user....
#1 DO NOT USE THE SAME PASSWORD TWICE
#2 DO NOT USE DICTIONARY WORDS!
#3 KEEP YOUR PASSWORDS AT 14 CHARACTERS, (this will take a hacker 24 hrs to hack), better yet, make it 24 +!
#4 ALWAYS, ALWAYS, USE A MIX! Caps, symbols, lowercase and numbers!
#5 BE VERY CAREFUL WHO YOU GIVE YOUR EMAIL TOO!
#6 NEVER ANSWER SECURITY QUESTIONS! THESE THINGS CAN BE FOUND ONLINE.... FOR INSTANCE; "where did u go to high school?" "What was ur high school mascot?" What is ur favorite color?" And so on... if u must answer them, answer them w obscure answers, oh, idk, like, all the same, lyrics to a song, etc....
#7 KEEP YOUR PASSWORDS WRITTEN DOWN AND WITH YOU! DO NOT LET THESE ON YOUR COMPUTER, EVER!
#8 A GOOD TIP, I THINK, IS TO USE DIFFERENT BROWSERS.....for instance, if you choose to use Windows for your os, (YUCKKKKKKKKKKK! LOL!) USE INTERNET EXPLORER AS YOUR MAIN BROWSER (ANOTHER YUCK!)
And do NOT ever pay your bills, check banks, etc, thru that browser! Instead, grab Chrome or Firefox, and use 1 of those for password related things. Emails, banks, bills.
A good example of a password would be, for instance, maybe all of your children's first words with their birthdates in the middle! Or, maybe a couple lines from 2 favorite songs.
Just be sure to write them somewhere and keep them with you, in a lock box, your wallet, anywhere you think is safe.
I like to hide things in books :D