If you want to get really technical, a passphrase is much more secure than a single password made up of random characters.<div><br></div><div><a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/09/cutting-the-gordian-knot-of-web-identity.html">http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2011/09/cutting-the-gordian-knot-of-web-identity.html</a> - the article is way more geeky than most of you will probably want to get (I'm a programmer), but the cartoon at the very beginning is pretty clear. Most hacked passwords are not guessed by a human, but by a computer which can easily run through all kinds of random character iterations. It's much harder for it to guess a random phrase made up of real words. So something like "freaky hound harness leash" would be more difficult for a computer to guess than something like a7^j2M, but much easier for you to remember.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Thank you, and this concludes our lesson on internet security. </div><div><br></div><div>-Esther, Basil, and Waldo ATB<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 12:23 AM, R Groves <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dd-post@thegroves.net">dd-post@thegroves.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><br><u></u>
<div bgcolor="#ffffff">
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">There comes a time everyone has gone through when
it finally hits them that "junior" or "Junior" isn't safe as a password..
</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">While we can't be elephants, or concrete reinforced
vaults 3 feet thick with passwords.. we can make passwords that make sense to
us, but would foil your common "dictionary attack".</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">There are a few common ways these people get your
password.</font></div>
<ul>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial">You use the password on multiple sites.. one of
them gets hacked</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial">You use the password on unsecure connections -
anyone doing POP and SMTP email these days should *not* be doing so on any
un-trusted network. And that starbucks down the street, that mcdonalds
free wifi hotspot, those are **not** to be trusted.</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial">You use a more simplistic password ... proper
names, regardless of how common or uncommon. Names of places, streets,
your name, etc.. not good for passwords.</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial">You accidentally run an app / virus / worm that
knows your email type.. like AOL, Hotmail, Gmail ... etc.. and runs scripts to
spam others when you log into your account</font></li></ul>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">So how do you do it? How do you create
something that's difficult to guess .. patterns, clusters, systematic
combinations.</font></div>
<ul>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial">your Zip Code+the name of a hound.</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial">One of your hounds names backwards, followed by
age, followed by the name of another of your hounds (forward this time) past
or present names!</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial">those of you with 5 hounds or more.. the first
initial of each hound, followed by one of their ages in number and then
spelled out <br></font><font size="2" face="Arial">FRH10ten (Franklin
Riley Henry - two of them are 10) or even FRH2r10ten (2 aRe
10)</font></li>
<li><font size="2" face="Arial">your age, hound name, spouse's age, and sex of
hound</font></li></ul>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">There are LOTS of different schemes you can use to
create secure passwords. Doing so takes the guess work out of it.. the
rest is keeping your machine clear of "loggers" which track keystrokes, not
using open wireless, not opening your laptops' email program if you aren't using
SSL encryption for the connection *to* your email servers.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">I'm more than happy to discuss any of this with
anyone on the Drool that would like more insight.</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial">-Robert</font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"></font><font size="2" face="Arial"></font> </div></div>
</blockquote></div><br></div>