Safe passwords on different systems

Safe passwords on all systems is a plea for handling passwords, allthough an absolute safe password doesn’t exist or it is complex so you can’t keep it in mind  🙁

Being online means to invent passwords and evem more important remember those passwords. If you research the current password-list you’ll ntoice that nothing has changed since 1 or 2 years ago. Because february 1st is “change you password” day i’ll do this article on the topic, because password safety is important.

Still passwords like  “1234567” or “secret” are the most used passwords, and this is not comprehensible. Better passwords won’t help against hacks which more and more companiers occure due to vulnerabilities where htousands of user-data were stolen.

There a couple of simple rules to build almost secure passwords:

• at least 8-12 characters, mixed plain and capital letters and special characters
• Don’t miss special characters
• different password for every account
• change passwords on a regular base
• users with lowest authority possible

Thiese are the base rules, but a lot of people have an account on  Facebook or Google+ or in other social networks, in addition at least one email account and maybe other accounts. And then it gets more and more difficult to remember all these passwords, so i plea for a password manager like like KeyPass , but if you choose another one take an  Open-Source solution.

I use Keypass on my desktop pc and my laptop running Windows and also on Android systems like my tablet and my smartphone. Password Managers run with a master password, which should be as complicated as you are able to remember. Keypass allowse the usage of a key file, which can be stored on a USBstick for example. My advice for the master password is at least 20 characters with mixed plain and capital letters.

The main advantage you’ll get using a passwort manager that the passwords for the different accounts can be as complex as you like since you have to remember the master password only.

Very important accounts with admin authority or like PayPal you should consider a 2-factor authentication, which adds a bit more security by using you personal smartphone as part of the authentication. The application sends an additional code via SMS to your smartphone, which is necessary in addition to your password.   But then don’t loose your smartphone 

On my tablet i use  Keypass2Android meanwhile , which allows to open a password file via URL or WebDav , and at this point ownCloud helps you a lot, if you don’t store the account data for your owncloud account permnently on the device.

In combination with other actions i feel pretty safe about this setup, but there is no absolute safety concerning passwords.

I did this article without any finger-wagging, its just to make you more sensible for your passwords and accounts, so change your passwords to more safe version.

If you have any questions just drop me a comment, i’m looking forward too it

ciao tuxoche