Craig Burton

Network Security begins with selecting a good password: "

Despite advances in biometric and other authentication technologies, the password remains as the primary line of defense between an attacker and your personal information in most cases. Choosing a strong password that is difficult to crack and yet easy to remember is something a lot of people do not invest a great deal of time in. However, the commonest of mistakes people make with regard to passwords is not paying attention to making them strong. Here are some guidelines to help you.

1:- Nobody wants to forget the password to our most important accounts - be it email or banking. To make it easy to remember we use our personal information for a password. Those who know you will find it a cakewalk to hack into your system. Never use personal information for a password.

2:- Choice of regular words other than personal information is also not a good idea. If you are a car freak for instance and bragging about wanting to own a Porsche, in all probability "Porsche" may well be one of your passwords.

3:- Setting a tough password with an easy answer to the password reminder or password retrieval question defeats the whole purpose of a password.

4:- Use different passwords for different websites and never disclose your passwords – Not even to your nearest and dearest.

While formulating passwords, make it a mix of characters and numbers and even alternate between the cases. Surely such a combination is not easy to remember but do not write it down - always memorize it. Anyone who has access to that scribble pad, has access to your personal accounts.

Trivial and repetitive as these rules may seem, you will be surprised at how many of us actually make one or more of these mistakes. Spending a little more time to make a better password may well be worth your while.

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Get ready for password fatigue. We will find a better way. Identity to the rescue?