Sharon Koehler

Artistic Stone Design

What do 123456, 123456789, qwerty, 12345678 and 111111 all have in common? They were the top 5 most common passwords in 2016. In this day and time with scammers, phishing schemes, malware, ransomware and who knows what else, the best we can do is 123456? 

Sorry to say, that just does not cut it anymore. The cyber criminals are getting smarter by the day and as it turns out, a good, long, no nonsense password is your best front line defense. The problem is that for security purposes, you need a different password for every website and account you have. That is a lot to remember! Recent surveys show that the average American has 150 accounts or sites they visit regularly that require a password.  AND by the year 2022 that number will jump up to 300! 

A person could get serious brain damage trying to remember all those letters, numbers and symbols (LOL). The minimum a password should be is 8 characters with a mix of capital and small letters with some numbers and symbols thrown in. Experts advise that even this is not enough. For increased security, a password should be between 12 and 15 characters with the above mentioned letters, numbers and symbols. 150 sites per person x 12 characters per unique password equals 1,800 keystrokes that you need to keep in your brain. I’m smart. I’m sure you are too, but seriously, I am not up for that. But it’s necessary to do this.

 This year alone my Facebook page has been cloned. My Visa card number was stolen, my bank account compromised and there was a big phishing scam revolving around Google Docs that ran through thousands of computers here in the US and probably around the world. I got caught up in all that. 

The Facebook thing was aggravating. The bank account and Visa thing were inconvenient as hell because I had to wait on a new card and change my direct deposit, among other things. The phishing scam thing was catastrophic. Google shut down my e-mail account because, without my knowledge, I had apparently sent out almost 900 infected e-mails in less than 20 minutes. 

The thing is, once these scammers get in, they have access to everything. When my IT guy came to check out my computer and make sure everything was okay, he asked me for my password, and when I told him, he had what I refer to as a “hairy conniption fit.” 

Then, to make matters worse, I told him that I used that password more than once. Steam was coming out of his ears and I thought for a moment he might have a stroke. I didn’t know the human face could get that red without sunburn. He asked me why, and I told him that I could not possibly remember all those long, complicated passwords. My gosh, I am only one person!

My IT guy then turned me onto one of the best things ever in just two words, “PASSWORD MANAGER.” Unbeknownst to me, probably because I am a Boomer and not up on all the latest technology, there are apps out there that will manage and memorize your passwords, all of them, no matter how many you have. Genius!

There are dozens of apps out there that will do this for you. Lifehacker.com listed their top five as LastPass, Dashlane, KeePass, 1Password and RoboForm.  Most are split into free, basic, and an upgraded premium pay package. My current Dashlane account is free. It remembers my passwords to the 130+ sites and apps I visit. It keeps track of my online purchase receipts and automatically logs me onto any site that I am storing a password for. To top it all off, IT’S EASY!

Download the app, fill out the required information and come up with a “Master Password.” Once you turn on the app and you visit your first site, the app will ask you if you want it to remember your password. You click “yes” and you are off and running. Every time you go back to a site, it will log you in automatically and, if for some reason it doesn’t, you can request your password from your password manager. Great! For some reason, if you need to change a password, the app asks you if you want to replace your current password with the new one. Just click “yes”. The app will even let you know if your current or new passwords are strong or weak. 

It will not remember your computer password as your computer has to be on for the apps to work. So, basically, I have gone from having to keep track of 130+ passwords to 2 passwords—my main computer password and my Password Manager master password. That’s it!

So, go ahead – get safe, get secure and let your brain think about other things than passwords.

Please send your thoughts on this article to Sharon Koehler at Sharon@asdrva.rocks.