When it comes to the daily use of your computer is there anything more frustrating than keeping track of all your different passwords? Passwords are a necessary evil and they should not be taken lightly. Choosing to take the easy way out by using a simplistic password like your favorite pet’s name can easily leave you open to identity theft and fraud, which is very difficult and time consuming to resolve.
In today’s techno-driven world, it seems like we hear about corporate hacking almost on a daily basis. Huge corporations are revealing their fallibility against cyber hackers who cruise the information highway every second of every day looking for vulnerabilities and weakness. If a multi-national conglomerate cannot guarantee security of their customers’ information, then what chance does a small to medium size company have? Unfortunately, very few companies adopt and adhere to password management policies.
Creating a strong complex password cannot be stressed enough. Companies and medical practices should be implementing policies forcing users to change user passwords at least every 45 days. Do not make the fatal mistake of using the same password for all of your activities on the web. Think about categorizing your passwords by having different passwords for different activities such as a shopping password, banking and payroll password, etc. A complex password should consist of no less than 8 characters, which should include a character like the @ sign or exclamation sign, etc. In addition, you should consider a capital letter and a number for a strong password.
The evolution of the password is moving towards several technologies like double authentication (password and magnetic strip card or token), Smart phone generated codes, and biometric recognition (ex. Eye / Iris scan or fingerprint). Looking toward the future, a USA Today article explained how companies like Google, PayPal, Microsoft, in 2012 created an organization called the FIDO (Fast Identity Online) Alliance. FIDO is working to come up with industry standards for online authentication, which would make all of this a lot easier and far more secure.
Hopefully, one day soon the password will go the way of the dial up modem, but until then ease your frustrated level, and take the time to create a password that is complex and change it often.
