Password Safety

My, our life has certainly changed in the New Millennium, mainly because we all now have computers. All those letters, for instance, that used to go by way of the United States Post Office are now handled via e-mail.

And paying those monthly bills? Now you go to your online bank account, point and click, punch a few keys, hit enter, and voila, the bills are paid and usually in record time.

Then there are all those social networking sites. Keep up with friends, new and old. What was the old saying? One is silver, the other gold? Yep, no matter how far away your friends are, get on the facebook and you can tell what they’ve been doing, or are going to do. They, of course, will be able to keep tabs on you as well, depending on how much you are willing to disclose to them while on this site.

These are but a few of the things that we use our personal computers for. The one thing that is central to everything we do online is a password. That is the one thing that opens your life up to anyone who can hack it.

Unfortunately most people take a rather cavalier attitude when it comes to selecting the one word that will be used to protect their privacy. Most passwords are about as sophisticated as the combination used by King Roland in “Space Balls”, Mel Brooks’ spoof of “Star Wars”. When forced to surrender the only thing that protected the atmosphere of his home planet, he reluctantly disclosed that it was 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) opined that it sounded like the combination an idiot would use on his luggage. He told the combination to his boss, President Skroob (Brooks backwards, played by Mel Brooks), who then said “Oh, great! Now I have to change the combination on my luggage!”

The fact is most people do use the same rather simple password for everything. Well, it’s easier that trying to remember a dozen different passwords. That’s tough. But if someone gets your password, there goes the neighborhood. If you can get into someone’s facebook account, you’re probably going to be able to access their bank accounts as well. And that is a whole ‘nother can of worms. Yep, the credit card would hit the shredder then.

Truth is, almost nobody can begin to imagine how sophisticated an arsenal the truly dedicated hacker has at his disposal. Just as there are an unknown number of troublemakers out creating new forms of the trojan (from the horse of the same name, used in the same way, to take control of your computer), or viruses, or worms, so it would seem that there are an equal number writing programs whose sole purpose is to hack your passwords.

There are some good guys out there, though, who can help us in our quest to enjoy the computer without having our identities stolen. John Pozadzides has written on this subject. In a piece entitled “How I’d Hack Your Passwords”, he reveals how easily most passwords can be hacked, and how to create a more unbreakable one. Simply google that title and follow his simple advice. Otherwise, you risk losing more than you might ever imagine.