Credential & Password Security

Contrary to popular opinion, credentials and password security is a little bit more than writing your password on a sticky note and sticking that to the edge of your computer monitor in your office. It is about choosing adequate passwords for your needs and applications.

It is also about knowing how complex to get. It’s a fine line between selecting a password that is properly chosen and one that is good enough, but may not be the most secure. Keeping in mind that you need to remember it, it can be a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be.

For internet banking and email, choose the most complex password that you find convenient. A good guide is for a word with one capital letter, perhaps an underscore “_”, and some numbers. Keep it clever and don’t use your name or the name of your pet, they would be the first words guessed if someone wanted to breach your password security.

Once you know what password you want, do your best to remember it but keep in mind this critical note: do not use it for everything that requires a password! Use a much simpler password for when you might join an online forum or website, but use a very secure one for sites where you do a lot of ordering or who might have your credit card details on file.

Following these few basic steps you will be able to ensure the security of your online password and credentials while keeping identity theft at bay and stopping unauthorized access and possible purchases.