Ten years ago, things were straight-forward on the internet - you pretty much had just the one password to store for your email account. Nowadays however, it’s not remarkable to have 10 or 20 passwords for innumerable online services you’ve joined. And you can predict what happens : Many people are inclined to use the same password over and over. Some individuals may not think their Twitter account as being hugely vital, but it is if you’re applying the same password as you are for your Google Checkout account. Of course, the convenience of having to remember just a single password is tempting, but what happens if someone gets their hands on that one password? That’s right, they potentially have their mitts on all of the servives you’ve signed up to that use that same password. If you are tempted to think they don’t know what other services you’ve joined, it isn’t required. They launch web application programs which examine literally thousands of online services and try to match your username/password pairing that they already have.
This is a problem we all have to address, but it is rather easily solved. Actually, it’s not required to remember every username/password. Let your browser do it. Be it your Yahoo Login or Email password. Ask your browser to remember each username/password, and then have a central password (”master password”) just in case someone else gets physical access to your computer. If they do so, they will have to enter the master password in order to login to any of the services you’ve signed up to. Or to put it another way, you can join countless services, and just need to actually remember one password : your master password for your browser.
When creating passwords, make them random and long, for example ghH945tfe4 which is a mixture of lower and upper case characters and numbers. Since you don’t need to remember them yourself, be as random as you like. Whatever you do, don’t use normal phrases as your password, as these are effortless to discover for hackers.
