Your Internet Consultant - The FAQs of Life Online

12.2. How can I keep my password secure?

On any networked computer system, your password is the only thing standing between you and disaster. Anyone guessing your password will be able to read your electronic mail, snoop in your files, delete your work, and post electronic mail or Usenet news that appears to come from you. Each of these things can be embarrassing, annoying, and dangerous.

Ensuring your account's security is relatively easy: make sure your password is something that's impossible for anyone to guess. If a password is particularly easy for you to remember or type, chances are it is a bad choice because its also easy to guess. Here is a partial list of passwords not to use:

* password

* opensaysme

* letmein

* qwerty, asdfghjkl or any other combination of neighborly letters on the keyboard

* your initials

* Your login name (this is very common and stupid. Trivia buffs might care to know that an account with the same login and password is called a Joe.)

* Your cat's name or your spouse's name, your phone number, your social security number, or any other information that can be found by fingering your account or going through your wallet.

* Any word that's in the dictionary

* Any common name (Steve, Quinn, Smith, Rover, and so on.)

To be as safe as possible, make your password a bunch of unrelated characters, such as K#*2ww>. Use a combination of upper- and lowercase letters, punctuation, and numbers and make sure your password is six characters or longer. If you find this type of password too hard to remember, try using two unrelated words separated by a punctuation mark, like explore*grasshopper or get*A*life. Finally, don't feel secure just because your password is long; many systems check only the first eight characters of your password!

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