Loosely Secure

Money is short these days. In addition to that, more and more business is being done via the Internet. With the economy as nasty as it is right now, people are willing to go greater lengths to make a few bucks. Potentially criminal lengths.

Below is a link to an article about passwords. Specifically the 10 most commonly used passwords on the Internet.

http://www.mozila.pl/blog/most-commonly-used-passwords-online/

If you find that one of your passwords is on this list... or similar (A spouses name vs. your own name) or maybe its been a long since you've changed, maybe it's time for a new password.

A good rule of thumb for choosing your password is to pick a random word that is 8 or more letters long. Then replace at least one character with a number, and one character with a punctuation mark. For example, the word "Original"

You could replace the "O" with a zero, or the "L" with a number one. Then add in a punctuation mark. Maybe the "i" would be an "!" (it's an upside-down "i") or just slap a "?" on the end.

Here are some examples:

Word: Original
Password1: 0rig!nal (First character is a zero)
Password2: Origina1?
Password3: 0rigin@l (First character is a zero)
Password4: !Or1ginal
Password5: Or1gin@l

I like to pick works that are easy to type, and are easy to remember. Even though it's a pain, you should think about changing your main password once a year. Just to be safe.

*V*