Do You Worry About Internet Safety?

SplashData reports that hackers have discovered the most  common internet password is now '123456' which swapped with' password'. That's right, the number 1 and number 2 most common internet passwords just switched places for 2013.

Chris Smith of the Boy Genius Report shares in his article 'Password' is no longer the dumbest password of the year.

Jon Brodkin of Ars Technica in his article Internet users ditch"password" as password, upgrade to "123456".

 

Splashdata News Friday, Worst passwords of 2013 - our annual list update.  January 17, 2013
 

Most Common Internet Passwords of 2013
Credit SplashData

Experts say we should use a strong password for our most sensitive websites and I would agree. I would also agree with virtually all of my friends (those over 55) that I need a password I can remember.

Here is a method to help you do both.

We will NOT use any from the top 25 most common but will use a scheme to create a strong password using numbers and letters and special characters.

1. Decide on your favorite word. It can be a name, place or thing and try to make it 5 or 6 letters or more.
2. Choose your favorite number over 1,000.
3. An finally choose your favorite special character. NOTE: some special characters are not allowed by some sites.
4. Now put these 3, easy to remember, items together to make up your "strong" password. Capitalize one of the letters (not the first one) to add one additional piece of strength.

For example:

My favorite name will be 'otto', my childhood pet dog.

1. My favorite number will be '1975', the year I got my first computer.
2. My favorite special character will be the '-' (hyphen).
3. I'll put them together in this order. '-1975ottO'.

Now THAT is a very strong password that I can remember easy enough.

 
It is advisable to have different passwords for different types of accounts. To handle this you might want to use a different special character for different types of accounts.

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