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We have recently come across and brilliant secure website called How Secure Is My Password.net.

The website provides users with rough estimates of how long it could take a hacker to identify their passwords and hack into their account. It will also tell you if your password is one of the 500 most commonly used (e.g. 12345, house, smith and chicken).

Simply visit ‘How Secure Is My Password?‘ and then start typing your passwords for instant feedback. Ideally, for accounts which don’t have your important information (e.g. bank details or address), you want your passwords to be secure for at least a few hundred days. Otherwise, for very secure passwords, you ideally want at least a few hundred years.

The longer it takes to crack the safer you’re likely to be!

Today is our last post from our Password series!  It’s always important to treat all your passwords with care.  It’s essential that you do so because you never know who may want get hold of your password or pass phrase until it’s too late!

• Reveal – Make sure you keep your passwords away from everyone (even family), especially children.  You never know who they may accidently tell.  You never know who may pass on your password without thinking.  The only exception to this is a joint account created with a spouse.
• Protect Recordings – Make sure you store any passwords you’ve written down in a careful place!  Never put it in the bin with out shredding and ripping the paper up profusely.  If you save them on your computer make sure the file is well hidden and not easily accessible.
• Email – Never give your password out via email.  If you’re emailed asking you to go to a website to verify your password it is more than likely to be a phishing scam.  Click here to find out more about phishing!
• Regular changes – It is a great idea to regularly change your password, depending on its length. If your password is around 8 characters long then we recommend you change it every couple of weeks.  If it is strong and 15 letters long we think it should last for years!
• Control of Computer – We suggest that you should only access profiles and accounts when you’re on your own computer.  It can be dangerous to do so in internet cafe’s etc because criminals can easily access previous used passwords using their technical equipment.

We hope that you’ve found the Password Series interesting and helpful!  Don’t forget to check out the Microsoft Password Checker to test the strength of your passwords!

Below are a variety of formulas that people often use to create passwords which are easy to guess and therefore easy to hack!

• Sequences – Try not to use sequences of letters or numbers as they are very easy to guess.  E.g, ’123456789′ or ‘abcdefg’ or ‘ddddddd’
• Look-alike – It is always good to use look-alike symbols instead of letters, e.g. ‘a’ is ‘@’.  However, we only recommend doing this when you combine them with a variation of letter cases.  No professional account hacker will be fooled by ‘i’ as ’1′.
• Personal Details – Don’t use your personal or family member details as your password.  E.g, name, date of birth, address, username/login name.  Hackers will try this information first.
• Dictionary – Hackers are now using some top quality software that can guess passwords from dictionary’s in all type’s of languages, even if the word is spelt backwards, misspelt and includes substitutions.
• Variation – We recommend that you have a few passwords instead of using just one for everything.  If one system is hacked into, and you use the same password for everything you may as well consider every account that you have on the Internet as hacked.
• Storage – many people are beginning to use online storage.  We would heavily discourage this.  If your online storage is hacked into you may have personal documents saved.  Consequently they will all be accessed by the criminal.

Finally, don’t forget to check the strength of your password with the Microsoft Password Checker!

Below is a 6 step method to creating a strong, good quality, easy to remember password!  Our method is easy to remember, just think the ‘S and 5 C’s’ method!

1. Sentence – Think of a personal sentence of phrase that you find really easy to remember, e.g. I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars.  This is known as a pass phrase.
2. Compatibility – Some systems, whether it be on the computer or online, may not allow spaces in your password.  If the system you’re using does allow for spaces use the pass phrase from step one and move to step 4.  If not then move to step3.
3. Conversion – If the system doesn’t allow for spaces convert the phrase.  For example, take all the first letters from your pass phrase to make a word, e.g. ‘I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars’ changes to ‘ihtpratb’.
4. Complicate things – Make the password harder to guess by varying between upper and lower case letters and throw in the odd number too.  For example, your pass phrase could change from this  ‘I have three pet rabbits and two budgerigars’ to ‘I hAvE 3 pEt RaBbItS aNd 2 BuDgErIgArS’ or your converted pass phrase could change from this ‘ihtpratb’ to ‘Ih3PrA2b’.
5. Characters – Now try to replace any words, letters or numbers with symbols and alternative characters.  For example, your pass phrase could start as ‘I hAvE 3 pEt RaBbItS aNd 2 BuDgErIgArS’ and change to ‘! h@v£ 3 p£t R@BbIt$ & 2 BuDgEr!g@r$’ or your converted pass phrase could start as ‘Ih3PrA2b’ and change to ‘!h3Pr&2b’.
6. Check – Finally, check the strength of your password using the Windows Password Checker.  The stronger the better!

Over the next few weeks we’re doing a series on passwords!  It is always important to have a good password.  Having a strong password makes it even harder for any hacker to get into your private accounts and information, etc.

Here are some good ways to ensure you have a good quality password:

• Length – It is ideal to have a long password.  By long we mean at least 8 letters long but if possible even longer!  Generally, the longer it is the harder it is the hack.  Many systems now also allow for spaces in your password.  Therefore it may be a good idea to invent a long phrase rather than a word.
• Use the whole keyboard – It is a great idea to use letters, numbers and symbols in your password.  The greater the variety of keys the harder it is for an attacker to break into your account.  Surveys have shown that having a 15 character password using both letters and numbers is far stronger than having an 8 character password with just letters.  In fact it’s 33,000 times stronger!
• Make it memorable – It is essential that your password is really easy for you to remember!  However, it is also essential that other people, even your friends, wont be able to guess it easily!

Finally, check out the quality of your password with the Microsoft Password Checker!

We posted a while back about ways to get an auto generated security password for wireless access.  We came across a site called ‘GRC‘ today that claims to give you a UNIQUE and perfectly secure encryption password for your wireless setup.  In our eyes possibly a little over the top for most home users, but if you are particularly security conscious or want to know a bit more about security passwords then the site might be worth a read.

By security passwords we are talking about WEP/WPA security…also known as the network key required to access a secure wireless network.  Hope it is of interest to some, we found it a good read, although a bit long in places ;o)

No excuses not to be wifi secure! )

Windows Live SkyDrive is an online storage device. You can use it for:

• Storing Private/Password Protected files,
• Storing files to share with friends all round the globe
• Sharing files with anyone and everyone.

You can upload and store pretty much any file, however you have a limit of of 5GB of storage space. You can have all your files organised and ordered into online folders. One slightly annoying thing is that you cannot upload entire folders at one time from your PC to SkyDrive, you can only upload 5 individual files at one time.

It’s up to you how you use it!  Some ideas we came up with were:

• Sharing files when working as a group
• Backing up your important files!
• Securely sharing photos with family and loved ones throughout the world!

To be able to use this tool you need to have a Windows Live ID. If you don’t just sign up for one, its free!

This week..passwording your Outlook PST file. The best way to secure your computer, let alone your PST file is to have user accounts with passwords, particularly in XP and Vista. However, if you want to add another layer of protection to your emails, calendar and contact details then you can with the following steps

1. Right Click on PST folder name in outlook, unless you have changed it this will be called “Personal Folders”
2. Choose “Properties” from the menu
3. Choose “Advanced” at the bottom
4. Choose “Change Password”
5. Leave the old password blank and just enter the password you wish to use in the”New Password” and “Verify Password” boxes.
6. Done! Now when you open Outlook you will be asked for a password, just don’t forget what it is!

Hope that is useful.