Passwords and Security

We all have busy lives and tend to overlook certain things.  One of the things we should really be more careful about not overlooking in both our personal as well as professional lives is electronic security.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have been asked to work on someone's computer, have asked them for their password and quickly learn it is still the default password the Tech Department gave them 3 years prior.  

All too many times I have also heard the phrase "Oh I use that password for everything".  I stop just short of following that up with the question, "Even your banking passwords?" because I don't even want to know the answer.  
Best practices and your Hartland Technology Department recommendation indicates you should have to access your computer by using a protected (login/password) and you should have separate passwords for every online account you make.  Strong passwords should be a mix of alpha, numeric, and capital letters such as 53np8R7T8 to make it as hard as possible for anyone to break. 

Still skeptical?
Look at it this way, if another person happens to gain access to your password that you use to log into your computer and all your passwords are the same, that student will have a much easier time gaining access to your school email, MiStar, Illuminate, banking, credit card, retirement, etc. accounts.  Sure the UserID's may not be the same, but in most cases they are comprised of your name and much easier to guess than your passwords.  

All that being said, don't make things so complex that  you forget your passwords.  To help you, you can use a password keeper such as the free LastPass password keeper (https://lastpass.com/) or another one of your choosing.  LastPass allows you to maintain all your passwords in one database while ONLY needing to remember the one password that allows you to gain access to your password database.

If you are interested, check out this YouTube video to help you get started.

It's the beginning of a new school year and therefore an excellent time to consider shoring up your personal and professional electronic security and changing those tired old electronic passwords.