Today the digital age isn't where it used to be. Where the Internet now is used for almost anything from social, entertainment, banking, and much more. Access to some of these services requires a username and password, and that often ends up attracting a lot of unwanted attention from scammers, hackers, and spamers. Just who are these scammers, hackers, and spamers? The names should already give you a clue to what they do. They scam, hack, and spam innocent folks like you and me for many reasons. Some of those reasons include theft, challenge, thrill and much more.
How big is the problem of Cybercrime?
According to Norton Cybercrime Report 2012 the total bill for cybercrime footed by online adults in 24 countries topped USD $388 billion over the past year. Where USD $114 billion were direct cash costs of cybercrime - money stolen by cyberthugs and money spent on resolving cyberattacks. Over the past year in 24 countries over 431 million adults experienced cybercrime, that translates to over 1 million a day, approximately 14 victims every second.
At USD $388 billion, cybercrime is more than 100 times
the annual expenditure of UNICEF (USD $3.65 billion).
How do I prevent it?
They have more than a thousand ways to trick you to do exactly what they want, and a good preventive step is to create a fortified password.
The first thing you need to start with is a pen and a paper. As ironic as it sounds building your passwords outside of the computer prevents any digital connection to the digital world thus making it impossible for digital bad guys to find out what your plans are.
Second you need to know that your passwords should be easy to remember, it needs to be as secure as it can be and have a combination of lower-case and upper case letters along with numbers, and a host of different symbols. Your password should contain some of these:
qwertyuiopasdfghjklzxcvbnm QWERTYUIOPASDFHJKL
ZXCVBNM 1234567890 !@#$%^&*()_+~{ }|:"<>?,./;'[]\
Also, here is a tip: Some websites or programs allow the "spacebar", not the word but the physical button on your keyboard that is used to create a space between words. A space is considered to be a singular 'item' if you get what I mean.
Now with that out of the way making a fortified password isn't difficult. There is an easier way to create a password instead of thinking of a random bunch of numbers, alphabets, and symbols.
Tip 1
You can create a phrase instead of something random. This makes remembering your passwords easier and it gives you a good chance of having a fortified one.
For example: I like to swim in the mornings! This has already created 25 character password and it already has a symbol, upper-case letter, and letters. Not to mention it is very easy to remember. (For websites that allow the spacebar it would have added more steel to an already strong password)
Tip 2
To create an original and totally randomized password. Start by creating 3 columns, where each column is categorized as who, what, and when. To create this password you will have to be as specific as possible with time, dates, and what you are doing exactly, and if what you are doing is even more random than it is, this will make your password a lot stronger.
For example: My dad is going to train with Bruce Lee at 9am on Saturday!
Now take the first letter of every word in the sentence you have created and you would end up with your password.
An example from the earlier example: MdigttwBLa9oS!
Multiple Passwords
Having a lot of passwords makes it difficult for everyone or anyone to remember them all. More often than not people have the same password for everything they do. Their passwords are the same for their Facebook, Gmail, Twitter, and others. This makes it easier for the digital bad guys, because once they have figured out one password they can continue to move on to other sites and in turn accessing everything that you use.
There are 3 categories in which you should have different passwords:
- Banking
- Entertainment
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Please share with us on what are your thoughts to be good or failsafe preventive methods to building strong and reliable passwords.
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