A list of passwords to avoid.

The list of the most common passwords and thus the easier to hack.

Last night I was watching the news while cooking dinner and there was this news that capture my attention.

worst passwords of 2014

It was a list of the worst passwords for the year 2014 and the number one was "123456" and second in the list was "password". The worst part was when Ryan Williams said that those where the perennials in the list. The list is published by Splahsdata and company dedicated to security applications and services.

They came out with such a list by compiling from more than 3.3 million leaked passwords during the year 2014. The compiled info came mostly from North America and Western Europe.

My tip for today:

Although  the name password suggest "word" it is better if we think about a pass phrase. That means 2 or 3 words and numbers to make a most secured password. For example 2hot2handle or AuntLucy0hi0. Use phrases that mean something to you so you can remember them and include numbers or symbols to add difficulty.

see you soon with more tips.

what is the cloud???

About the cloud and other storage. 

I love that commercial where a woman ask "Where is the cloud? Are we in the cloud?". So I thought it would be nice to talk about Cloud Storage.

Cloud storage is internet base storage or put in another terms, it is storage that you access through internet. "The cloud" is just a metaphoric name for internet computing.

Is this the cloud?

There are several companies that offer free cloud storage as: iCloud, Dropbox, Onedrive, Google Drive, and many more. They are all different but at the same time they offer the same, storage space that can be accessed over the internet.

And you might wonder why would people store their information on the cloud? well, it makes it easier to share files between your different devices, as your computer and mobile devices. Also, it gives you the opportunity to access your files from any computer as long as you have access to internet and can remember your log in and password. And you could also share files and collaborate with other users.

As many users I have seen having problems with corrupted or ran over flash drives, I would really recommend them to give cloud services a shot.You could still use your flash drives as a secondary backup option.

Which one is the best? they all have their pros and cons.

My tip for today:

 If your current email service provides cloud storage, then, than would be your best option because at least you already know that user name and password.

See you all soon with more tips.

Always, always log off

Students : always, always log off.

always log off

This is a very important rule to follow, students should always log off or sign out of the workstations they have been working on. By doing so, they would be sure that nobody else will delete files from their network drive or browse inappropriate internet sites using their credentials.

Also, when a student leaves a workstations and they are still logged on, it uses resources from the computer making it slower,  and sometimes locking the computer so it has to be forced to shutdown for other user to log in.

Our user credentials leave a footprint in all that is done on our network and internet too. User credentials is in a way a signature, so it must be treated like that too.

So my tip is : LOG OFF

It takes some of your time to log back in but I assure you it is worth it!

How many user accounts and passwords??? say what?

It is 21st century and yes it is important to learn and be able to handle several user accounts and passwords.
 
I myself have so many user different accounts and passwords that i have a app installed in my iPad to administrate and keep a record of all of them. And the punch line is that to enter that app i need to type a pin number for security !!!

That is how many users would feel. What a person has to do in the name of security.

I know people that use the same username and password for everything, yes EVERYTHING, like tv commercial and it is not a good practice at all. It is all about controlling a risk. There are some places like bank accounts, etc, that I put more complicated passwords and try to change them every so often. In some cases i have no other option but to do it.

My recommendation would be to use a different email or account name for your financial matters and another one for play (facebook, linked in, twitter etc).

So that's all for today, hope you find this tip useful.

:)