I took LIS 598 Information Security this summer and we were given an eye-opening demonstration of just how easy it is for someone to crack passwords and invade systems wirelessly. That someone could be a computer in another country running an automatic script 24/7 or someone sitting in a vehicle on the street near your home. Here are five rules to follow for password protection:

 

Rule 1: Never share a password. Especially, NEVER EMAIL usernames and passwords.

 

Rule 2: Make passwords complex. Incorporate special characters, capital letters and numbers and make them at least 8 characters long.

 

Rule 3: Know that you are more vulnerable than you think. Most hackers will not “announce themselves” with a Rick Roll if they have penetrated your account.

 

Rule 4: Never leave your desktop computer, laptop or mobile device unattended and without some additional layer of security (password required to login).

 

Rule 5: Change passwords every few months and vary passwords for every account.

 

If you have trouble remembering passwords, password management software such as 1Password for Mac OS X or for Windows KeePass (free & open source) orLastPass can help. There are a lot of other password management tools out there too.

 

According to SplashData, these are the Top 25 Worst Passwords of 2011. If you use any of these passwords, I would suggest changing asap.