Over the past weeks and months the "Heartbleed" bug has been reported on by TV news, magazines and on-line. But it still amazes me how many people have no clue what the bug is and more important what to do about it.
Passwords - Change Them or Face HeartBleed
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=George_Uliano]George Uliano
Over the past weeks and months the "Heartbleed" bug has been reported on by TV news, magazines and on-line. But it still amazes me how many people have no clue what the bug is and more important what to do about it.
Without getting too technical, there is plenty of that on the internet; the heartbleed bug is a programming bug found is some version of Open SSL. Open SSL is what encrypts your user name, passwords and other data as it goes from your computer or device to the web site. About 2/3 of the web sites have or had this bug, by now most web sites have fixed their problems. The problem for users is that your personal information could have been taken by the bad guys. The web sites can't say how many or if any users were compromised. This is because the data was taken before it got to the different web sites. So most sites are recommending you change your passwords.
For the remainder of this article I am going to focus on passwords, which by the way, we should change at least once per year, but 90% of us never change our passwords. For the importance that is but on passwords it would be if ALL internet sites would allow their site to accept not only letters and numbers, but symbols as well. Also they should accept passwords that have at least 20 characters.
Below are some password tips that have been said before but are worth repeating:
Make your passwords as long as possible and use letters (upper and lower case), numbers and symbols
Do not use any real words, birthdays, phone numbers etc. in your passwords
Your passwords should be completely random
Every web site where you have to set up an account should have a new never used password
Use a password manager to manage and track your passwords, this will allow you access to your passwords regardless of the device you are using
Here is an example; Riv8647eR, this password looks OK after all it has upper and lower case letters and numbers. The problem; the word "river" appears, password crackers will guess this very quickly, then it is just a matter of running numbers. Here is what a good password should look like "Ht%#49?thd78$#", this is a completely random 14 character password that would make it not worth the bad guy's time to try and crack. The take away here is to get a good password manager and use it, so that all your sites have unique strong passwords.
George Uliano is a security professional with years of law enforcement and security experience. He earned a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice and Business graduating with honors. George holds three U.S. patents on different locking principles. This combination gives George and His Company Locking Systems International Inc the unique ability to provide its customers with the correct security at an affordable price.
For additional information or to purchase Locks go to http://www.lsidepot.com
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Passwords---Change-Them-or-Face-HeartBleed&id=8617488] Passwords - Change Them or Face HeartBleed
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=George_Uliano]George Uliano
Over the past weeks and months the "Heartbleed" bug has been reported on by TV news, magazines and on-line. But it still amazes me how many people have no clue what the bug is and more important what to do about it.
Without getting too technical, there is plenty of that on the internet; the heartbleed bug is a programming bug found is some version of Open SSL. Open SSL is what encrypts your user name, passwords and other data as it goes from your computer or device to the web site. About 2/3 of the web sites have or had this bug, by now most web sites have fixed their problems. The problem for users is that your personal information could have been taken by the bad guys. The web sites can't say how many or if any users were compromised. This is because the data was taken before it got to the different web sites. So most sites are recommending you change your passwords.
For the remainder of this article I am going to focus on passwords, which by the way, we should change at least once per year, but 90% of us never change our passwords. For the importance that is but on passwords it would be if ALL internet sites would allow their site to accept not only letters and numbers, but symbols as well. Also they should accept passwords that have at least 20 characters.
Below are some password tips that have been said before but are worth repeating:
Make your passwords as long as possible and use letters (upper and lower case), numbers and symbols
Do not use any real words, birthdays, phone numbers etc. in your passwords
Your passwords should be completely random
Every web site where you have to set up an account should have a new never used password
Use a password manager to manage and track your passwords, this will allow you access to your passwords regardless of the device you are using
Here is an example; Riv8647eR, this password looks OK after all it has upper and lower case letters and numbers. The problem; the word "river" appears, password crackers will guess this very quickly, then it is just a matter of running numbers. Here is what a good password should look like "Ht%#49?thd78$#", this is a completely random 14 character password that would make it not worth the bad guy's time to try and crack. The take away here is to get a good password manager and use it, so that all your sites have unique strong passwords.
George Uliano is a security professional with years of law enforcement and security experience. He earned a Bachelors Degree in Criminal Justice and Business graduating with honors. George holds three U.S. patents on different locking principles. This combination gives George and His Company Locking Systems International Inc the unique ability to provide its customers with the correct security at an affordable price.
For additional information or to purchase Locks go to http://www.lsidepot.com
Article Source: [http://EzineArticles.com/?Passwords---Change-Them-or-Face-HeartBleed&id=8617488] Passwords - Change Them or Face HeartBleed
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