Part of living in the cyber age means that we all have a lot of passwords. If you’re like a lot of people you use the same one and it’s extremely simple. Unfortunately, simple passwords are not secure passwords. If your password is something that someone can guess, then someone might. Long, complex passwords that are composed of both numbers and letters are better than short simple ones.
Passwords are often a weak link in security. According to Microsoft, password-cracking software is constantly getting better. Given enough time, software that methodically goes through and tries every possible combination of characters can crack pretty much any password. However, a longer, more complex password takes way, way longer to figure out (months instead of minutes). Microsoft has a document that explains the characteristics of the type of "strong password" you should use to foil these types of tools (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/windows_password_tips.mspx).
Microsoft suggests that a password have these characteristics:
- Be at least seven characters long.
- Contain upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
- Include at least one symbol character in the second through sixth positions.
- Be different from your previous passwords.
- Not contain your name, user name, or an actual word or name
Of course, if you do all this not only do you have a secure password, you have one that’s virtually impossible to remember. Fortunately, you can get inexpensive software that lets you record your incredibly secure passwords. Any Password (http://www.anypassword.com) is one of many shareware programs that give you an encrypted home for all your passwords and user IDs. You only need to remember one password (for the Any Password software) to get access to all the rest. It also features a password-generating tool, so if you aren’t feeling creative with letters, numbers and symbols, you can just press a button and let Any Password generate a nice secure password for you.