Why you need strong passwords and how to protect them

Hello,

It is important for several reasons to have a strong password on your e-mail and web site accounts. Your e-mail account is the gateway into your personal information including web banking, investment accounts, and other websites that store your personal information online. There is also a growing trend of spammers breaking into e-mail accounts with weak passwords and using them to send massive amounts of spam which can lead to your ISP closing your e-mail account before you even realize that there is a problem.

The following are examples of weak passwords that must be avoided:

• temp
• password
• changeme
• having the same username and password
• sequences such as abcd, 1234, and abc123.
• the last 4 digits of your social security number
• your birthday or the birthday of someone close to you

To create a strong password please use a combination of the following guidelines:

• Mix capital and lowercase letters, numbers, and use punctuation.
• Create passwords that are over 8 characters long.
• Use the first letters from a phrase or sentence that you can remember.
• Substitute numbers, misspellings, and punctuation into phrase and sentence based passwords.

Now we will use the above recommendations to create a new strong password.

An example phrase is "Talk to the hand because the face ain't listening".

Use all of the first letters: ttthbtfal

Then capitalize every other letter: TtThBtFaL

Substitute in some numbers: T2ThBtF8L

Add some punctuation and generate our new strong password: T2T&btF8L!

Now that you have a strong password you need to protect it!

• Do not write it down.
• Do not tell it to anyone else.
• Never put it in an e-mail, chat, or instant message.
• Do not type your password on computers that you do not control.
• Do not use the same password for every e-mail account or web site.
• Change your passwords regularly.

Lastly, I recently learned a great tip about reminder questions and how to protect your passwords. Lie! When you are asked by a site that you trust to provide your mothers maiden name, name of first pet, fathers first job, the city you grew up in, or your zip code, do not give an honest answer. Create a fake history for yourself with funny answers that are untruthful but you will be easily able to remember when asked the questions. It is possible for a lot to be learned about some people by reading the information they have posted in casual conversations, e-mail threads, chats, and internet forums.

Please view our Email Resources section to find additional articles, tutorials, and product reviews from the experts at EmailQuestions.com.

-Raymond