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Overview -> Security -> Passwords

Security is never foolproof and it can be discouraging. Both to the predator and the prey, security is a daunting task to undertake. However the rewards in both cases can be well worth the trouble, which is why it is always good to be weary. The hardest part is staying abroad of the perils that exist. Computer security is not handed to you by the manufactures nor does it require expensive specialized tools. Security, in most cases, is designed, controlled and maintained by you, the end user, often free of charge. This places the largest amount of responsibility on the individual in charge of securing an object. By most standards today, security is enforced with complexity, obscurity, and passwords.

Unfortunately, in this day and age when you interact with a computer you will often find a number of cases where you are required to enter a password. Passwords maintain the lead in security today, although extremely vulnerable to human fallacy, they can easily be designed to be extremely difficult for machines to break. The best rule of thumb for password security is “the more difficult it is to remember, the harder it normally is to break”. A complex password normally consist of 8-12 or more characters, comprised of a combination of mixed-cased letters, numbers and symbols. However this is not always allowed by the administration in charge of designing and controlling security access, the end user is only in charge of maintaining the password.

Maintaining the security of a password is often the most difficult part in security. Designing security is planning and developing standards. Controlling security is resetting passwords and enforcing the design. To maintain a password you must rotate or change it, depending on the design and who controls the overall security determines how often a password needs to be changed. The more secure something needs to be the more often the password should be changed. The password also needs to be handled securely. Never give a password out to anyone for any reason. If someone is in charge of controlling security, they will be able to reset the password if necessary. Also try not to write down passwords in one location or an easily discoverable location (i.e. sticky notes on the monitor, under the keyboard, etc.) If a password must be written down; keep the written copy under lock and key. There are many password managers available, many are free and only require one password to remember/manage all other passwords.

Password managers, however, normally store information on a remote server at their location; therefore anyone with enough access to their server could possibly compromise password security. This relates back to the design and who controls security; trust must be placed in any company that has designed or controls the security. For this reason, it is highly recommended to never use the same password for more than one account and also to change it on a regular basis. The benefits of password managers can outweigh the drawbacks; such as automatically filling out logins and passwords in your web browser or even generating random complex passwords of a given number of characters. Again, though, it relates back to how much trust you have in the company that designed and controls the security of the server storing the sensitive information.

To achieve the best level of security and still retain a password phrase that is memorable; haxor is one of the better methods. To learn more about haxor and where it came from check http://www.ypass.net/misc/haxor/haxor-history.html , they also have a translator, but remember if anything is submitted on the Internet it will be stored somewhere and possibly traceable back to the computer that submitted the information. For basics, haxor is merely replacing letters with numbers or symbol representations of the letters. This would make “haxor” into “|-|@x0r” or something similar. It is easier to remember being a phrase, but much more difficult to break with the larger number of characters and the inclusion of symbols and numbers. Alternating between upper and lowercase for letters that are not easily replaced with a number or symbol, also increases the password’s strength.

In the end security comes down to routine and paranoia; the more consistent both of these actions are the more secure sensitive information will be from predators. This will not be the last installment of security run downs, it is just the highlight of a very broad and encompassing road on the information superhighway. If you have any questions or would like to know more, please feel free to contact us with other ideas or concerns about passwords and security.