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Password security through complexity.

One girl I know has a pattern. She picks a key and from that key on the keyboard she has a predetermined pattern and thats her password. Some people use personal info, some people use names and dates that are important to them some people use the names of pets and dead presidents and some people use 'God'.

"A password is considered 'strong' when it contains more than seven characters and includes at least one uppercase alpha, at least one lowercase alpha, and at least one numeric or symbol character." -Security Administrator Street Smarts pg 82

You want your password to be 'strong' because 'weak' ones have a lot of opposition out there. Brute force attacks, dictionary attacks, common sense, social engineering and easy passwords are just ripe for the cracking. Pets names, celebrities, birthdays, SSNs, all in jeopardy. And to that end, Some tips:

1. Try to use something familiar (personal) but complicated, even altered with numeric and special characters.

2. If you can help it don't use one password for everything.

3. If you suspect your account has been compromised, don't wait for proof, change your password immediately.

4. Make habit of changing your password (or altering it you lazy few) every now and again.

5. Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever give out your password. If you think about it, the only people who might ask you for your password are people who probably shouldn't have it anyway.

6. Give me your password.

7. That was a test.