Changing your password may well be the biggest impact on your online security this year

When was the last time you changed your password? I mean REALLY changed it – not just add a 1 to the end, or swapped it to the “other” password your regularly use.

We continue to hear about identity theft and yet the common complaint is; “I just can’t remember all these passwords!”. Are you using the same password you used in high school? Are you still using your mother’s maiden name, or your home phone number? Maybe it’s your birthday or year you were born.

A study of 32million passwords reveals that only 3.8% of passwords include special characters. Full Report

Courtesy:net-security.org

This same study states that the most common passwords are: (are you using one of these?)

123456
12345
123456789
Password
iloveyou
princess
rockyou
1234567
12345678
abc123

This year – 2010 – right now, go out and change your password for ALL your social sites and subscription logins. Is it really that hard? I don’t even care if it’s all the same password for all the sites, just make it different – much different than you had before.

Password Ideas

This time, when you come up with a password, do something different. Make it two words from a poem, or the name of Obama’s dog. Get fancy and use “$” or “%” for an “S”, “@” for an A, “0” (zero) for a “O”. Instead of “collegiates” make it “C0ll#giate$”. Make it something different – even if you have to write it down for the first week.

Also, make it more than seven letters or numbers. (DON’T use “123456789”) In fact try for nine letters with fancy characters. That would be a great password!

2010 is just starting. Make your personal world safer with one easy change.

Change your password.

/Technicalguy