5 Simple Password Tips to keep the evildoers at bay

When dealing with computer clients, I deal with people who don’t read the instructions or follow rules. They don’t like Apple’s storing their passwords up in iCloud.

 

They refuse to set up their iCloud accounts to back up their Apple Mail app passwords. They’re afraid of “hackers”. Hackers from Romania are no smarter than people from Nebraska. Just change your password every 30 days.

 

Follow the xkcd cartoon to set up tough passwords you can remember and the Romanians can’t crack in less than 100 years.

 

 

 

 

Make regular backups of your computer. Hey, just plug a USB hard drive of sufficient capacity into the computer, set up Time Machine, and let it function.

 

 

Joan, Doris, Do Not Unplug the Drive from the Computer! Let it continue to make backups.

 

As an additional backup, use Super-Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner to make a clone of your Mac on an external drive. Set it up to run when you leave in the morning for work or school. By the time you come home, the app will create or refresh the clone. In my case, I set Super-Duper to shut down the computer to alert me the clone is done.

 

 

If you read your mail from a Web Browser such as Firefox or Chrome, you can use the internal password manager or an external one. In addition, you can set up a cloud account in Firefox and Chrome to save your passwords. If you set up Firefox and Chrome on another computer, no matter the operating system, you can synchronize your passwords.

I repeat, if you fear hacking by Russians, Chinese or Romanians; then you can make it harder for them with these simple steps:

 

1. Change your password every 30 days. Set a reminder in your calendar app to remind you to change them.

2. Follow the rules in the xkcd cartoon on setting up passwords that are tough to crack but easy for your to remember. 

3. Your laziness in maintaining passwords is the hacker’s secret weapon. Change them regularly, like underwear

4. Don’t use passwords such as “password” or “123456”. That’s how the Russians easily broke into the Democratic National Committee’s databases. Make them sweat!

5. Don’t use passwords based on publicly known information about you. These include your birthday, your mother’s name, your high school and your graduation date. Anything that Facebook has, assume the KGB has, too.

 

I can’t guarantee you’ll never get hacked. But you’ll make it much more difficult to get hacked by following those steps.

 

Tom Briant

Editor, MacValley Blog