Passwords

Problem: I recently had a running gun battle with one of my colleagues. It was about passwords. This all started when I got a monthly email from a newsletter service (I guess to remind me that I was a member) which showed my password in clear text, yes right in the email!! I immediately canceled the newsletter and asked the service to remove my password from their database. They quickly obliged but wanted to know what was the problem, so one of the technical staff sent me an email about it. He listened to my reason but then quickly brushed it off by implying that newgroup passwords are not serious passwords and that I should never use any password that I really care about for this. He said to re-subscribe and use a "silly" password; after all, it's just for changing the newsletter options. He also said that I should attend some of their meetings and maybe I would know these things. (Seeing red yet? I was).

Well, I didn't resubscribe and don't intend to. In this day and age everybody should take every password seriously. Identity theft has grown to epidemic proprtions. The need to keep passwords secret and unguessable has become absolutely mandatory. If someone offers a service that requires you to supply a password, they have an OBLIGATION to protect that password as if it were their own. No one else can decide which of your passwords are the serious ones and which are the silly ones. THEY'RE ALL SERIOUS, DAMMIT!! I'm not going to bore you with all the reasons for protecting passwords; you've heard them all a million times. I'll just state the few simple rules that I go by......

Solution:

1. Never write a password down.
2. Never tell anyone what it is.
3. Avoid using dictionary words.
4. Use as many special characters as you can remember.
5. Never allow the password to be easily guessable.
6. Last but not least: Cancel any password-controlled subscription which shows that it doesn't take your passwords seriously .... :o)