Security Tip: Password Best Practices

Here are some tips to protect yourself, your systems, and your web accounts from being hacked.

Always and immediately change default passwords on your electronics, security and camera systems and automation controllers otherwise you’re asking to be hacked! Some systems will prompt you to change your administrator password as a reminder and you should take heed.

Never use simple passwords!  Make your passwords complicated and random so they aren’t easily hacked by trying typical combinations. If you think this isn’t a problem, search the web for brute force attacks, dictionary attacks and rainbow tables and you’ll think twice before making your passwords easy to guess.

Don’t use the same password on more than one site.  That way if your password is compromised, the damage will be limited to one site or piece of equipment and you won’t have to frantically scramble to change the password on every site you’ve ever visited!

Once you start using strong secure random passwords, get yourself a password vault of some sort to save your passwords in a secure place with a complex password you can remember.  This way you really only need to remember the one password.  Be sure this one password isn’t going to be easily guessed and make it as long as you can manage.

If you heed the above tips and best practices, you’ll find yourself in a much more secure place and with any luck the bad guys will leave you alone and go prey on an easier target!