The pursuit of better passwords is a constant uphill battle that we continually educate clients about. One of the biggest obstacles is that we’re all human, and we’re habitual by nature, so if we don’t train ourselves to use more secure passwords, we often find ourselves using insecure passwords instead because they are easy to remember and we assume no one will ever guess them.

This infographic is courtesy of Lifelock via SocialMonsters.org.  

With the most recent password breach at Yahoo barely a month since the LinkedIn password leak, it seems a regular occurrence now – is there anyone left who has NOT had a username/password breach? The risk is that we start becoming calloused and maybe even comfortable with this, especially if you or someone you care [...]

All companies use passwords, but nearly half do not require that they are difficult to guess, and almost a third of companies never require employees regularly change their passwords.

Ah, those pesky passwords. If you work in the corporate world or in an office, you have one for your PC/Network and, unless there is a password synchronization application that combines them, you probably have more than one for other applications. Add those to the ones that you have for your home Internet, your banking and other websites that require passwords, and before you know it you have a nightmare on your hands in trying to manage them.

About two years ago, Nerds On Site implemented a strong password policy for all our email users. Because of todays technology it’s become trivial to “crack” weak passwords, it’s too easy for malicious software and people to take control of email accounts – this means someone could send emails from your account without your knowledge. By strengthening your password, you’re reducing the risk.

In light of reduced SPAM as of late, I was somewhat surprised to see phishing and theft attempts as sophisticated as this come through to my inboxes today – at least one in each of my different email addresses, but all came from email accounts of friends on Facebook. I searched the major anti-virus and malware vendors as well as google and twitter and nothing turned up, so maybe I’m just one of the first to be hit.

These days, we must all keep track of our online passwords for work and personal use of everything from email to Facebook. Many people use the same passwords for all of their accounts, and it’s often something that’s easy to remember. In some cases, users will go months (or years) without changing their passwords. There are many excellent reasons to change your password. If your computer is infected with viruses or spyware, they be monitoring your online activity. After the computer has been cleaned, it’s a good idea to change your passwords.

Password management tools like Blackberry password managers and Roboform are great, but what if you don’t have them with you? The Little Grey Cell Storage System(tm) is always available, but has a limited capacity (more limited for some of us than others). There are a number of free and paid online password managers available. Do [...]