Windows 10: I would like to comment on passwords security

Hi Guys As I have had lots of help on W10, and although I acknowledge that most of you will have LOTS more pc experience than me, I feel sure others with less experience MAY benefit from what I think about password security. Correct me if I am wrong, but there are a few main comments and tips about passwords. 1- use upper and lower case, and some sites insist on a + or % or * as well. 2- the text book tells us to have a different one for each site 3- they also say, never write them down 4- never us a 1234 or 1066 etc, in other words, very obvious one that intruders might gues. 5-scammers or virus senders use a "shotgun affect" when guessing emails like [email protected] and repeat it with change of no, theory being, it will find at least one person, which is all they need. My comments to the above are 1- makes sense, but using that method with different sites-wow 2- so if you visit 20 sites, maybe more, you have to remember them. 3- as we are told not to write them down, best of luck- 4- totally agree 5- true Solution >>>remember, you are trying to create a p/w the "baddies" can't associate to you or guess, and it must be one (yes, I only use 1) so you think of a phrase, or happening you will always remember. I met my wife in London in 1966, then you use first letter of each word >> immwiLi1966 I contact w10 forum today > Icw10ft There are 22 teams in the premier league > Ta22titpl As you can all imagine, the possible choice is endless and as we all know, even if we make it more complicated, using it each day, it becomes imbedded in you mind. I welcome comments

:)

 

I would like to comment on passwords security

Here's one...

I once posted a pic of a holly bush I planted. The only things in the pic were the bush and about a 4 foot circle of grass.
Someone said you shouldn't post pics of things that are located where you live.

I figured I was safe.

Now this other person knew what city, state I lived in. The only thing I can assume is that they did an image match on Google maps. It wasn't 4 days after I posted the pic, that they sent a message to me with a pic from Google maps, of my entire house.

That too.
It's not just the information (tracks) the we personally leave on the internet, it's also the tracks every site, company, etc., that we deal with that are left on the internet.


Think about calling lists, or mailing lists that we inadvertently end up on. I doubt their security is even something they worry about. There's our addresses and phone numbers... etc.


Or how about something else with low to zero security, like the veterinarian. They also have name, address, phone, and what bank you belong to.


Then there is social security numbers, and w/e they have in the UK or anywhere else. That number is in a LOT of places.
Hopefully all of them have commercial security, but how secure is that.

And then there's social media sites, who seem to semi annually get hacked (so they say), and regurgitate 150 million people's information that they have.

Or our internet service providers, that could watch everything we do online, if they wanted.

Or even Microsoft. Like folks in the Beta channel, for example. they come right out and tell you they're gonna watch everything you do online.

 

I would like to comment on passwords security

It’s not enough to just use any old password. You can improve the security of any operating system and, hence, of your entire network—by making each password robust enough that it is impossible to guess and is impervious to software programs designed to try different password combinations. Such a password is called a strong password. Ideally, you want to build a password that provides maximum protection while still being easy to remember.


You really need to know only three things to create strong-like-bull passwords:

• Use passwords that are at least 8 characters long—Shorter passwords are susceptible to programs that just try every letter combination. You can combine the 26 letters of the alphabet into about 12 million 5-letter word combinations, which is no big deal for a fast program. If you bump things up to 8-letter passwords, however, the total number of combinations rises to 200 billion, which would take even the fastest computer quite a while. If you use 12-letter passwords, as many experts recommend, the number of combinations goes beyond mind-boggling: 90 quadrillion, or 90,000 trillion!
• Mix up your character types—The secret to a strong password is to include characters from the following categories: lowercase letters, uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. If you include at least one character from three (or, even better, all four) of these categories, you’re well on your way to a strong password.
• Don’t be too obvious—Because forgetting a password is inconvenient, many people use meaningful words or numbers so that their password will be easier to remember. Unfortunately, this means that they often use extremely obvious things such as their name, the name of a family member or colleague, their birth date, their social security number, or even their system username. Being this obvious is just asking for trouble.

 

I would like to comment on passwords security

I highly suggest you use a password manager like Bitwarden or Lastpass and 2 factor authentication. Yubikey is the strongest form of 2FA, particularly good for your Google account but many others too.

Bitwarden Open Source Password Manager
#1 Password Manager & Vault App, Enterprise SSO & MFA | LastPass