I can't tell you how many times I have seen some of the most basic and easily guessible passwords used by people. Even for something as important as their bank account! Most people don't understand that with all of the different types of password attacks out there, such as brute forcing, rainbow tables, etc. it is becoming ever more important to create stronger passwords. Most people use basic passwords that might be a single word, or a combination of words like "ilovemydog".
The best practice to use today would be to create passwords consisting of a long string of random characters. Most people don't do this because they want to be able to remember the password. This is where password programs come in to play.
My personal favorite password software is keepass. You can go here to download the program. It's available for almost any platform, including windows, mac, linux, and even the iphone and android phones! The reason I use this software is because it creates an encrypted, password protected database of your passwords, which I would consider to be a hell of a lot safer then writing them down on a piece of paper that you keep at your desk, which most people still do! Another reason I like this software is because there is a built in password generator. You can have the software create a long random password for you. Now you don't have to worry about remembering any passwords, accept for the password to keepass! You simply find the entry for what site you need the password for and either copy and paste the username and password, or have keepass fill the information in for you. There are also a bunch of plugins for you to add functionality, such as an auto form fill out feature that can add info like your name, home address, etc. on a site instead of you manually entering that information in.
Keep in mind that this is only one of many different password management programs. This just happens to be the one I use on a daily basis and would recommend to most people.
So take a look at keepass or other password programs and give it a shot. I know it takes getting used to and it may seem like a pain at first, but it sure beats having your accounts hacked into or your identity stolen!
In my next post, I will show you how to synchronize your password database with multiple devices, so that you can always have access to your latest password database.
