Protect yourself! Secure your passwords!

[dkmatthews]

It ain't nearly as hard as you think to have your passwords PROTECTED by a secure database.

Please check it out....

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Feedback is encouraged and appreciated.

[JustinN]

Video doesn't work for me.

[jeepster09]

Video doesn't work for me.

Maybe it was hacked.....:D

[Longitude Zero]

It is not rocket science. Make it longer, use letters, upper and lower case letters along with a wildcard aka punctuation mark. There you have it.

[dkmatthews]

It is not rocket science. Make it longer, use letters, upper and lower case letters along with a wildcard aka punctuation mark. There you have it.

LZ, I agree with you! What I'm pointing out, though, is using a program so you don't have to remember lots of passwords... only one.

Fat-fingered from my Samsung Galaxy TAB2...

[les strat]

And store nothing in "the cloud"!

[Tinman507]

I use a program called Last Pass (https://lastpass.com/)it works very well and works across computers. It's a cloud system but it is highly secure. It will generate hard to crack passwords and remember them for you.

[muggsy]

My password is hopscotch. I've protected it with a copyright. No problemo.

[OldLincoln]

All of these cloud applications boast the best, most secure, networks and there's simply no way it can be hacked..... until it is hacked. One after another have been hacked, usually somewhere between the cloud database and the end user. Credit cards are hacked at the regional collection point, facebook and twitter from who knows where. I'm telling you that if you want to prevent your systems from being hacked, secure your use of passwords, and your home network, and use common sense.

Rather than revisit old ground, you can google to find out specifics, but for me, giving up all my passwords to a cloud is the last thing I would do.

[dkmatthews]

All of these cloud applications boast the best, most secure, networks and there's simply no way it can be hacked..... until it is hacked. One after another have been hacked, usually somewhere between the cloud database and the end user. Credit cards are hacked at the regional collection point, facebook and twitter from who knows where. I'm telling you that if you want to prevent your systems from being hacked, secure your use of passwords, and your home network, and use common sense.

Rather than revisit old ground, you can google to find out specifics, but for me, giving up all my passwords to a cloud is the last thing I would do.

PasswordSafe and KeePassX are NOT cloud apps.

Fat-fingered from my Samsung Galaxy TAB2...

[Longitude Zero]

LZ, I agree with you! What I'm pointing out, though, is using a program so you don't have to remember lots of passwords... only one.

I understand. I generally use what IT refers to as a "pass phrase" where all the words are run together. It has really worked for me. It still amazes me how many folks use sequential numbering or the term qwerty.

[muggsy]

All of this talk of hacking passwords has made me nervous. I want everyone to know that I've changed my password from hopscotch to drowssap. That's password spelled backwards. That should fool 'em. :)

[JFootin]

Thanks for sharing this info! :)

[JustinN]

http://xkcd.com/936/

[dkmatthews]

Cute comic, but it misses a critical issue. Most websites won't allow a 25 character password/passphrase. Also, by encouraging people to REMEMBER a password/passphrase, you are encouraging the BAD behavior of using the SAME password/passphrase on multiple accounts.

The reason so many people get hacked is that they use the same password with their email address for logging in to every site they visit, including banking. This makes them easy targets. Using a secure password database allows the user to have a different password/passphrase on EVERY online account without having to remember OR EVEN KNOW what that password is. This is a security best practice that you can adopt right now with very little effort.

[JustinN]

I work in the banking industry, specifically as an Advanced Technical Support guy for a Debit Card software. It's amazing how unsecure so many aspects of banking, cards, people's logins, etc are. An interesting thing, if you can find it, is to look at the frequency of use of PIN numbers. There are certain number combinations that are used at a Much Much higher frequency by people than others, and they aren't the standard 1234 or something, they are weird combos, but everyone seems to pick them.

[dkmatthews]

JustinN -- yes, I work for a financial services company, too, in PCI compliance.

[Longitude Zero]

I barely trust the internet to be secure to do banking and CC transactions. I feel it is absolute LUNACY to engage in financial transactions on a smartphone!

[dkmatthews]

I barely trust the internet to be secure to do banking and CC transactions. I feel it is absolute LUNACY to engage in financial transactions on a smartphone!

Then, by all means, don't! :)