Hacker groups like Anonymous and Lulzsec have received a lot of attention recently for their attacks on major corporations.
Anonymous and Lulzsec claim that they won’t use the information they’ve gathered to steal your identity or make purchases using your credit cards, but there are plenty of hackers and hacker groups out there that don’t make any such claims.
There’s nothing you can do to prevent hackers from getting your personal information by hacking computers and servers belonging to companies you deal with, but you can protect your data from hackers targeting your personal information through the use of strong passwords.
You shouldn’t rely completely on strong passwords to keep your personal information safe, but when used alongside antivirus software, anti-malware software, and a good firewall your data will be safe from all but the most dedicated hackers.
Before we dive into how to create a strong password, it’s important to first understand who would be trying to access your accounts.
If you spend a lot of time using the Internet in Baristas Coffee House, Starbucks, or any other establishment that offers Wi-Fi to their customers, you run the risk of being hacked.
There are steps you can take to prevent it, but the longer you use public Wi-Fi, the higher the risk that you’ll draw the attention of a hacker.
It’s also possible that you will be targeted personally by a hacker, or an acquaintance looking to do you harm. For a hacker to target you personally, chances are you’ve done something to offend them, whether it was intentional or not.
As for acquaintances that might be trying to access your accounts, they could be anyone from a jilted lover to a curious relative testing their hacking skills while trying to learn more about you.
There are a few simple rules you can follow to keep most potential hackers from breaking into your accounts.
Anyone trying to eavesdrop on your wireless traffic in a public place isn’t getting huge chunks of information on you and your Web surfing habits at once.
They’re actually getting small chunks of data here and there, forcing them to monitor traffic from the same user for an extended period of time.
Using a password longer than 10 characters that includes both numbers and letters can make it very difficult for the would-be hacker to crack the password. This only applies if you’re using other methods to keep your traffic secure in public.
If you’re not accessing a site using https, or using a VPN to access the Internet, your traffic is still very much at risk, no matter how strong your password is.
In order to thwart hackers who already know something about you, you’ll want to avoid using passwords with personal significance.
Don't use things like your birthday, your child’s name, your pet’s name, your anniversary, your child’s birthday, your favorite color, your lucky number, or anything else that holds any sort of personal meaning as part of your password.
For example, an employee of Milano’s Pizza shouldn’t use pizzaguy as their password. It’s not hard to imagine someone who works at a pizza place using the word pizza in their password, and as such, that password would be easy for someone to guess.
At the very least, it would make the process of cracking the password easier.
The best way to construct a password that’s both easy to remember, and secure is to use a combination of nonsense words and numbers.
The password should also contain at least one capital letter. So, something like Jeepers5Creepers6 would be an effective password.
Just be sure to use a nonsense word that doesn’t hold any special significance in your life. If you loveAlice in Wonderland, using the word Vorpal in your password is probably a bad idea, despite it being a good nonsense word.
By using a combination of capital letters, lower case letters, and numbers that spell out nonsense words, you can build a password that will thwart most automated password cracking methods, and you’ll prevent anyone from guessing your password.
Strong passwords aren’t the only security measure you should be using, but they’re definitely an important part of keeping your personal information safe.
