Today’s Summer of Success tip is somewhat of a different variety; it is a topic that is important for anyone that has an online presence. The topic is online safety and the article is provided to you by Jocarole Carpenter.

Is your password ironclad or just ‘passable’?

When it comes to online safety, you are the only one in charge. Consider your password the key to your online ‘vault’.  This is the place where you keep all your personal and business files.  You are ‘in charge’ and you have to be on guard, day and night.

Ok, tell me more

A password is your digital key to your online accounts and networking sites.

A password works with a user name. The two of them are always used together. They unlock the online door to everything you hold near and dear to you, virtually speaking.

Getting started

You want to make your user names and passwords long and strong.

• Have a combination of letters and numbers.
• Add in some punctuation and uncommon keyboard symbols.
• Use upper and lower case letters.
• Use different user names and passwords for each site you are on.
• A good amount of characters would be 20, the longer the better.

Remember you want to make this hard for hackers; it has to be hack-free.

When you think you finally have created the ‘perfect’ password, there is something else you need to do before calling it a day. You have to test it with a ‘password checker’ to determine how strong the password is. Try this from password checker from Microsoft.

What’s not okay

Don’t ever use words which other people know or can figure out easily. This includes your family members as well as you.  Some examples are: names (first, middle, and last). Also your mother’s maiden name and yours too) if this applies. Social security numbers, birth dates, your partner’s name, ages, favorite colors, favorite numbers, your pet’s name, numbers in a row such as 1, 2, 3, etc.

Just so you know there are software programs specifically designed to break your password code so you need to put a lot of extra thought in this. I also wouldn’t type in my password on a public computer.

• Don’t use the same password for different websites.
• Don’t use passwords that are almost identical to each together.

Click here for Random.org which will help with creating your own unique passwords. Another resource is here at Strongpasswordgenerator.com.

Help! I forgot my password!

The easiest way (for me) to remember all of my passwords (I have a lot) is to write them down. There are even programs that will store your passwords for you. For me I just prefer keeping them to myself and not having to worry Websites are down or even broken into. We all have heard those stories before. I have a separate rolodex I keep for this purpose and I know that will never get hacked!  It’s really worth it to take the time now and put a security lock on your computer door using strong password combinations. 

In closing, if you decide that password security is just not for you then you may want to read this.

About the Author:
Article written by JoCarole Carpenter of Shore Office Services.
Shore Office Services is a virtual assistant practice that provides administrative, computer, concierge, database management and more. Visit JoCarole’s website for more details.
Visit Jocarole’s website: www.shoreofficeservices.com
Follow Jocarole on Twitter: @ShoreofficeSvcs