Whats your password?? (old post)

okay guys.. lets get serious here. What does your passwords look like and when was the last time you changed it?The reason why I asked this question is because recently one friend of mine lost some important stuff uploaded on his email account.. After much questioning, one nut finally gave up and said that he just wanted to play a prank.. and he uploaded those files back.. and of course, my friend immediately changed his password. I gave him some tips to create a strong password and I am going to share those with you.First of all, there are tons of guys around you who know a lot about you and your life, so it would be stupid to put something like your pet name, friend's/relative's/dog's name, or something related with what you do.. That would be the easiest way for someone else to find out your password. That guy who had played the prank on my friend said he used to see my friend's hands when he was entering the password.. and was able to guess out rather easily what it is... Turned out to be his girl's name followed by her occupation!Forget about names, don't try to put in any english words or abbreviations or anything that makes sense as your password.. Not only does this make your password resistant to dictionary attacks.. but if someone sees you entering your password, he will have a hard time figuring it out! I read somewhere recently that most people just put simple english words as their password... making them very vunerable to dictionary attacks. And no.. a combination of two or more words doesn't help, and neither does a change in case.. make sure your password doesn't mean anything!To make it more stronger, add numbers (no.. no phone numbers please!) and symbols to your password. You can also change the case of some of the letters from small to caps.. that too helps.Some sites have a small script which automatically tells you if the password you just typed was strong or not.. This is really helpful. If you follow all the tips I gave, you will surely get a strong password. You also get password generators which generate random passwords.. Tweak XP has a really nice one. These are also helpful.Also make sure you change your password once in two or three weeks. I know.. it can be hard to remember a strong password.. but don't write it down anywhere.. just spend some time memorising it and you won't forget it. Needless to say, don't tell your password to anyone else ;-). And no.. don't rely on that secret question some email providers ask! It is another weakness in your account security.If you forget your password, you can have it reset or mailed to you on your email address. You can delete that email for additional security.. or some guys prefer to keep it for reference.And finally, if you are not using your own computer to check your email, you need to be extra careful. Don't use your friend's computer if he is a jerk as he might have a keylogger on. Use "secure" sign ins wherever available. Most websites have an option in the sign-in page to remember your username and/or password. Remember to check if these options are not selected. For extra security, you can delete the cookies and autocomplete records from the browser settings before you leave the computer in an internet parlour.okay.. i may sound like a serious freak saying all this.. but you never know what can happen if your email account his hacked. That jerk can get access to all your personal stuff and emails.. and can blackmail you(it happened to me once!!). You guys must have already heard of cases of cybercrime (even kidnap and murder) because some fools were not careful enough on the internet.well.. thats all I had to say.. until my next blog post..