Breaking the lock: How strong is your password?
Last weekend, on the last day of a very nice long weekend out of town, our car was broken into and all of our belongings were stolen. Laptops, ipods, clothes, new purchases from the weekend, the car radio … everything.
To say it kind of bummed out the weekend is putting it mildly.
When we got home, the first thing we did was get online and change every password we could think of. For the most part I had good passwords. The average person can’t “guess” a password, but a good program can do it in a matter of seconds.
For small businesses, the loss of a laptop could be crippling. Having the information on the laptop compromised or even information on the Internet compromised can be devastating. Both in productivity and customer faith.
I was excited to see this post on the downloadsquad.com blog pointing towards a program which helps you rate passwords. Password Meter, an online tool that provides real-time feedback on how strong or weak your password is. I’ve tested a bunch of my new passwords on it and have actually discarded some that scored lower than I thought they would.
Just another way to safeguard yourself and your stuff.
‘Chelle Parmele
Social Media Marketing Manager
Palo Alto Software
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that’s a major bummer.
Yeah, it really is. But it really drove home the fact that we need to register our software and hardware, keep pictures and serial numbers up to date.
And to keep passwords secure. It took me about 2 hours to get to and change all the important ones. Not something I want to go through again.