October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month which is an annual campaign to raise awareness about cyber-security. We live in a world that is more connected than ever before. The Internet touches almost all aspects of everyone’s daily life, whether we realize it or not.

Chris Menard

Password Rules to Follow:

For some reason people have a hard time creating secure passwords. The most likely reason is our brains aren't wired to handle this much detailed information. In 2015, the average number of passwords per person was 90. I find that number to be on the low side. I personally have over 400 passwords.

Let me get back to the issue of creating a secure password.  I recommend your password be:

1. At least 16 characters
2. Contain a combination of numbers, symbols, uppercase letters, lowercase letters
3. Free of repetition, dictionary words, usernames, pronouns, IDs, and any other predefined number or letter sequences.
4. Don't use the same password for every account. 

Example of a good password: 

• Rp5#3@xQ*ZkT@F2!cWu

Examples of bad passwords (people actually use these passwords):

1. 123456
2. password
3. ginger
4. sunshine
5. seinfeld
6. 12345678
7. qwerty
8. football
9. baseball
10. welcome
11. abc123
12. dragon
13. master
14. princess
15. starwars

Below is a tool that tells you how secure your password is. The website is
password.kaspersky.com  If you use the site to test your password, don't type in your real password. I tested one of my Gmail passwords, but changed a few numbers and changed the special characters. Results below.​

My rule about passwords is this. If you can remember it easily, it's probably a bad password. 

Helpful Links:

Menard's blog post on passwords- City of Stockbridge

 

Contact Chris Menard for Microsoft Office training for your company.

Chris Menard