Password Protection

Confession is good for the soul, they say. So here goes…

Not long ago, I tried to log onto my 2 laptops and kept getting the “Invalid password” message. I type that password twice every morning. Pre-coffee! Of course, I knew what it was. I tried rebooting. I tried CAPS ON and caps off. I called my IT support who was going to come with his reset software.

I finally quieted down enough to try the password on auto-pilot as I usually do. Oh… yeah… there are 2 more digits to it.

Later in the week, my sister wiped her iPhone clean because she got confused about her phone password. She never turns off the phone therefore she never uses that password.

I use a password protector software but I had left my Windows password out of it. My sister uses a password storage software but it doesn’t have online access, only phone access.

Confession over. Let’s talk about how you can prevent either of these scenarios happening to you.

You ABSOLUTELY can not use the same password for multiple accounts! This is a serious problem. Please! It’s worth the effort to make your data safer. A data breach at Dropbox was just to gather emails and passwords, not for info in stored files. The hackers take the passwords, try them at banks, PayPal, Google, etc. to get access to your accounts.

Option 1 – I strongly recommend this!

Use LastPass.com to record and input passwords. Last Pass will create complicated passwords for you or you can make up your own. (See Option 2!) LastPass will fill in the user name and password for you on website logins. You can see the list from your computer, your tablet, your phone. You can access it online. You can store other info like social security numbers, spouse’s auto license plate number. I will help you set it up if you need some assistance. Basic service is free. Premium is only $30 a year. Using LastPass on your tablet or phone does make it easier to access sites from those small screens. And if the phone is locked up, you can access the password list from your computer.

Could online storage be hacked? Yes. A meteor could fall from the sky and land on your head. You could win the lottery. Similar odds so don’t use this excuse.

Option 2

Create a series / pattern you can remember but changes with each account. Should be at least 10 characters including a capital letter, a number and a special character.

Example: Series is 125chAracters3434$% (3rd character is always capitalized)

Then for your Google account the password is 12goOgl3434$%

for Southwest Airlines the password is 12soUth3434$%

for Yelp the password is 12yeLp3434$%

You can remember the series. Each password is different so that if a hacker gets the Google password they can’t access Yelp.

You could have a series for bank and financial accounts. Another for business accounts. Another for personal accounts. Or you can use one series for everything.

This is IMPORTANT! Call me if you have questions or need help getting set up.