Just a quick post today about computer security as it relates to passwords. For most of us who spend even a little bit of time online we surely have lots of websites we visit regularly and so it’s likely that we have login information for them especially shopping sites like Amazon, eBay and others.

Choosing Passwords

It is very important to choose passwords wisely. While it is easier to choose simple ones that we can remember this practice makes it to easy for online predators to hack your information and make your security and identity more vulnerable.

Typically people choose passwords that include their kids names, birthdays or simple one word passwords and this is a mistake.

Example of a Great Password:

^&gh#$#AFHA454^#$%&#$dfha#@

See the deep combination of characters, capital and small letters and numbers is the best way to protect your online accounts and personal data, and decrypting those is much harder than a password like, Joey.

It is also a good idea to vary your password from site to site. Many times people want it to be easy to remember and so they will use the same one, but this can make you more vulnerable in the long run.

Read on to learn how to make remembering passwords easy.

Remember Passwords Easily

If you are using Firefox (or the dreaded Internet Explorer) the browser can remember your passwords for you, and then each time you visit a particular site the browse will automatically insert your user name and password eliminating the need to type it in each time.

If you go that route, which is fine, then make sure to set a Master Password in Firefox, which means that every time you open your browse you have to type in one main password which will activate Firefox to automatically add your login on different websites.

This provides an added layer of protection and also if anyone should be on your computer, they will not be able to access all your passwords. This is especially important for laptops, which can get stolen, and then your identity and all your login info is open to the thief, but with the master they will be locked out.

Firefox will automatically send a little pop up screen at the top of the web page whenever you enter a new user name and password and ask you if you want it to remember it for you. You can choose on a case by case basis.

How-To Set Master Password in Firefox

Click on Tools

Click Options

Click Security Tab

Click on Set Master Password