Thursday, September 18, 2014

Passwords, they keep you safe, and can drive you crazy!

One of the things that we teach students here at school is how to create strong passwords.  You probably know that one of the most common passwords used is "password." Not a good choice! A strong password uses both lower and uppercase letters as well as numbers.  It does not use recognizable words. Let the internet help you find a strong password. Just google "password generator" and you will have many to choose from. Of course, the "driving crazy" part is when you forget your password.  The line of students at my office door last week needing to reset their forgotten passwords testifies to that issue. So have a place (not beside your computer!) where you write down your passwords.

As for your iOS device (iphone, ipad, etc.), how secure is that?  If someone found it, could they figure out your passcode?  I recently read an article that listed the top ten iOS passcodes to avoid. They are the most common ones.  The top five are 1234, 0000, 2580, 1111 and 5555.  The article stated, "Also frequently used were patterns. Anything that makes a shape on the keypad, or a common word, should be avoided (5683, the 6th most commonly used passcode, spells LOVE)."

Is it time to reset those old passwords?