- private - Never give your
login information to anyone unless you trust them completely and
you are willing to accept the consequences of anything they do in
your name. Anyone who has your UserID/Password is you for all intents
and purposes.
- difficult to guess - We
all want passwords that are easy to remember. Unfortunately easily
remembered also means easily guessed. Never use your name, the name
of your significant other, the names of you relatives or pets. Never
use your birth date, anniversary date, social security number, phone
number. Never use any of these in reverse. The best passwords are
a random mixture of mixed case alphanumeric characters.
- unique - Use a different
password on every system. If you use the same UserID/Password everywhere,
any employee of that system will have access to any and all your
other information. Bank and credit card data is among that information
so they also have access to your money.
- secure - Everyone knows
that putting your UserID/Password on a Post-it Note on your monitor
is unwise. Yet, millions of people do it anyway. It's just as bad
to keep them in a Word file or text file on your computer. They
become available to anyone who gains access to your computer via
the internet or is just sitting at your keyboard. Don't use a challenge
question with an obvious response, like mother's maiden name. It's
too easily discovered.
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