Robert's thoughts on computers
How can I safely keep track of all of my passwords?
Creating, saving, securing, & recalling passwords is often pointed out as a very important thing to do but rarely are users given enough of the details of how to do this easily and reliably.
Passwords should meet several key criteria:
1. They should be 'secure' or impossible for anyone to guess. Nothing that could be found in anyone's dictionary.
2. They should be different everywhere you use them so that someone at a remote site who has access to one of your passwords will not easily be able to use it somewhere else.
3. They should be easy for you to remember without writing them down.
Here's a method that will likely work for you:
Pick a word that has at least 5 letters and that starts with a vowel. Let's say you picked 'apple'. Apply some random capitalization to your word. Let's say you decided to capitalize the first and last letter. Your word now be 'ApplE'.
Now pick a random 2 digit number. Let's say it was '32'. Combine your word and your number and you have 'ApplE32'. That is a secure password. It is 7 characters, has random altered capitalization and also contains numbers. You can now use this secure password on all of your in home, personal use needs such as logging in to your computer, etc. No one you know is going to guess this password. It will become ingrained into your brain as you will be using it repeatedly. The uniqueness is yours and known by no one else. We have now accomplished Step 1 above.
To accomplish having a different password for every site or location that you will visit, you will alter your unique password in some orderly, yet secure manner. Let's say you need a password for when you visit the New York Times web site. Pick a set of characters that can be derived from those words. Let's say you chose something easy such as the first letter of each word. That would equate to 'nyt'. You could now append that 'nyt' to your 'ApplE32' and then have 'nytApplE32' as your secure password for that site. If you were to need a password for the Los Angeles Times web site, that site's password would similarly be 'latApplE32'. This system allows for each and every site or location to be both unique from every other site and also be secure at the same time. Goal number 2 above accomplished. Do recognize that you can be more creative than just picking the first letter of each word. You might also have chosen to consistently put those letters in reverse order or perhaps have picked the 2nd letter in each word. Whatever you do, just be consistent.
Having used the above 'system', you will only have to remember your single secure, always used, unique ApplE32. This will be used so often that it will be a no brainer to remember it. The method for creating the appended suffix (which can be added to the beginning or end) of your 'root' password will also be easy to remember as it is made with a single rule that made sense to you. Goal 3 above accomplished.
Your new 'system' will work for every site that you should happen to need a password for as it will contain enough characters to satisfy those sites that will be forcing you to use a 'secure' password. You will also never have to worry about carrying around a sheet of your passwords nor will you have to put a copy in your desk drawer.
Try it. I think you'll like it. :-)
Passwords should meet several key criteria:
1. They should be 'secure' or impossible for anyone to guess. Nothing that could be found in anyone's dictionary.
2. They should be different everywhere you use them so that someone at a remote site who has access to one of your passwords will not easily be able to use it somewhere else.
3. They should be easy for you to remember without writing them down.
Here's a method that will likely work for you:
Pick a word that has at least 5 letters and that starts with a vowel. Let's say you picked 'apple'. Apply some random capitalization to your word. Let's say you decided to capitalize the first and last letter. Your word now be 'ApplE'.
Now pick a random 2 digit number. Let's say it was '32'. Combine your word and your number and you have 'ApplE32'. That is a secure password. It is 7 characters, has random altered capitalization and also contains numbers. You can now use this secure password on all of your in home, personal use needs such as logging in to your computer, etc. No one you know is going to guess this password. It will become ingrained into your brain as you will be using it repeatedly. The uniqueness is yours and known by no one else. We have now accomplished Step 1 above.
To accomplish having a different password for every site or location that you will visit, you will alter your unique password in some orderly, yet secure manner. Let's say you need a password for when you visit the New York Times web site. Pick a set of characters that can be derived from those words. Let's say you chose something easy such as the first letter of each word. That would equate to 'nyt'. You could now append that 'nyt' to your 'ApplE32' and then have 'nytApplE32' as your secure password for that site. If you were to need a password for the Los Angeles Times web site, that site's password would similarly be 'latApplE32'. This system allows for each and every site or location to be both unique from every other site and also be secure at the same time. Goal number 2 above accomplished. Do recognize that you can be more creative than just picking the first letter of each word. You might also have chosen to consistently put those letters in reverse order or perhaps have picked the 2nd letter in each word. Whatever you do, just be consistent.
Having used the above 'system', you will only have to remember your single secure, always used, unique ApplE32. This will be used so often that it will be a no brainer to remember it. The method for creating the appended suffix (which can be added to the beginning or end) of your 'root' password will also be easy to remember as it is made with a single rule that made sense to you. Goal 3 above accomplished.
Your new 'system' will work for every site that you should happen to need a password for as it will contain enough characters to satisfy those sites that will be forcing you to use a 'secure' password. You will also never have to worry about carrying around a sheet of your passwords nor will you have to put a copy in your desk drawer.
Try it. I think you'll like it. :-)
Comments
How much should I spend on an anti-virus for my Mac?
Zip. Nada. Nothing. Do you need anti-virus software for your Mac? Nope.
Fortunately, due to the way in which the Mac was designed, and also due to the smaller numbers of Macs in the computer world, they are not subject to the onslaught of viruses that PCs have to deal with. In fact, if you add anti-virus software to your Mac, you'll probably regret it as they seem to cause problems from time to time while adding no real benefit!
Don't worry though about having a little extra money in your pocket, I'll write next time about some additional software that you'll probably want to add to your Mac to make it as good (or better) than those PC guys.
Comments (2)
Does everything have to cost money?
There aren't many exceptions to the rule that every PC needs to have an anti-virus on it AND kept up to date. But does this mean that you have to spend money purchasing anti-virus software and then spend more time keeping it up to date?
Perhaps not. If you are a home user, you can legally obtain a copy of the best anti-virus software that will automatically keep itself up to date. It has been well established that Norton or McAfee are probably not your best choices. Yes, I know that they came with the computer and you are thinking that they are doing their job. But what you are probably overlooking is the fact that the footprint that they consume on your operating system is large. Very large. And they cost money every year to renew your subscription.
A better answer for home users is AVG. You can get a copy of this from the AVG web site for home users. Try it. You'll like it.