Passwords, Passwords, Passwords

I just wrote about creating strong passwords on the last day of 2019, and ended with the words, "May 2020 be your most safe, secure online year ever!!"  I had no idea at that point in time how crucial those words would be for us.  As more people have spent more time online these past two months, the activity of hackers and scammers has also GREATLY increased.  So, it's time to review these two tips today:

1)  Create an email account with Gmail that you only use to sign up for accounts online, ones you don't need to monitor; think of it as your "junk email" account.  Use it whenever you don't need to have regular interaction with a company or online offer.

2)  Create a good strong password when creating an online account OR begin now changing your passwords you already have.  Do not use the same password for each account.Yes, your device will be glad to supply a strong password, and you can somewhat safely do that.  But, I like being able to remember my password, so I use the method detailed below.  Once your base password is created, it is easy to make a unique password for each of your online accounts.

a) Think of an easy phrase to remember - e.g., my favorite bird is a cardinal

b)  Remove the spaces in the phrase:  myfavoritebirdisacardinal

c) Capitalize the first letter of the second word:  myFavoritebirdisacardinal

d) Replace  the letter "a" (all or some) with the @ symbol:  myF@voritebirdis@c@rdinal

e) Replace the letter "s" with the $ symbol:  myF@voritebirdi$@c@rdinal

f) Use that password as your base and then add on the first three letters of the website or account to make each password unique.  For example, if I was using the above password for Facebook, it would look like this:  myF@voritebirdi$@c@rdinalfac and for Gmail it would look like this: myF@voritebirdi$@c@rdinalgma

At first, you may be slow entering all of the characters, but with practice, it should become automatic and much easier.

Enjoy your time online; the ability to stay in touch with friends, family, church family and others has been invaluable. But, please do everything you can to protect your personal data, including passwords, online.

Enjoy this beautiful day (at least here in Kansas it will be beautiful!)

Jeline
All previous weekly tips are located here:  http://tuesdaytechtidbit.blogspot.com
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