What better way to commemorate the first Change Your Password Day than to -- drum roll, please -- change all of your passwords!?! Proposed by popular tech blog Gizmodo, the new “holiday” may not prompt awkward office costumes or calorie-packed goodies, but it could save you a whole lot of trouble down the road.
High-profile hacking scandals -- like the recent breach of online retailer Zappos -- remind consumers how tricky and unsafe the Internet can be. But, we shouldn’t wait for information to be stolen from us before we make an effort to protect it. The crowd over at Gizmodo has labeled the new holiday the “most boring -- but safest! -- celebration ever,” and want to use it as a way to emphasize the importance of password maintenance.
“I thought it would be a good idea if we all changed our passwords together,” wrote Matt Buchanan of Gizmodo before suggesting Feb. 1 as the day for the occasion. “Sooner is better than later.”
So doing what you’re supposed to be doing on Change Your Password Day may be easier said than done. Most people, Internet-savvy or not, would probably agree that keeping up with a variety of passwords -- with every website or institution’s specific set of password rules -- isn’t easy. And that can result in unsecure passwords. An analysis done by The Tech Herald, after AntiSec supporters published a list of encrypted passwords on the Internet, points out how quickly regular old computers and easily-downloadable software can hack into “secure” systems.
But the answer isn’t necessarily to make all of your passwords as complicated as possible. Sure, it’s a bit scary to think about remembering a different password for all of the various accounts you access on a regular basis -- especially when each one requires you to use upper and lower case letters, a number, a symbol, your first cat’s name and a foreign language. But these may not be the most secure passwords after all. It may come as a surprise, but using keywords and phrases that are easy to remember may be more secure than a random jumble of letters and numbers resembling the result of sitting on your keyboard. For example, a report by security expert Thomas Baekdal about hacking systems and password safety showed “this is fun” to be 10 times more secure as a password than “J4fS<2.” And although your passwords don’t have to be as complicated as you may have thought, there are some key safety features to keep in mind, like length and using more personal keywords and phrases. Who would have thought -- that weird thing your grandmother once said may be the best way to keep your accounts safe!
Take a few moments to check out what HLN Money Expert Clark Howard says about protecting your passwords and the possibility of having your bank account drained by hackers.
Get more of Clark’s great money-saving advice at 6 a.m. & noon every Saturday and Sunday on HLN.
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