The Secret to a Strong Password
With the sheer number of passwords we have to try and remember these days, it’s easy to be lazy and use the same one across your accounts and applications. This may make it easy for you to remember but it also puts your personal and work information at risk of being hijacked.
The same can go for your use of MEX. For example, you may have approval privileges and if someone were to get your details and happens to guess your password correctly, they could go on an approval spree. Having a secure password is just as important in MEX as it is with all other programs.
This article goes through the Do’s and Don’ts of creating a new password.
Default Password
Let’s start with default passwords. Whenever you are given a new account and a default password, CHANGE IT! You would be surprised at the number of MEX users that never change the default password.
When you do change the password, here are a few tips to help you choose a strong password
Password Strength
Have a look at the following passwords and tell me which one is the most secure?
- Qwerty
- meX95
- 1@MV3rY$tr0nG
- 1 @M V3rY $tr0nG
Number three?
Well its number four. Why you wonder?
It turns out that when you combine a space with other characters, it makes a really hard to break password. Using the name of your pet and the year you got it is a bit too predictable so a hacker just needs to find some details about your life and they can starting draining your bank account. Using a combination is your safest bet.
Here are some guidelines you can follow to strengthen that password:
Password Guidelines
Do’s
The longer the password the more secure it is. Try to use more than 8 characters and make sure its a combination of the following characters
- Uppercase Letters (A, B, C)
- Lowercase letters (a, b, c)
- Numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
- Any one of the symbols found on your keyboard (!@#$ etc…)
- Spaces
Don’ts
- Never use a complete word
- Never use your First, Middle or Last names
- Don’t use your company name
- If you have kids, their names in full shouldn’t be used either
- Recycling is for plastics not passwords.
If you have suddenly realised that most of your passwords fall under the Don’ts, it’s probably a good idea to start changing it up. Using these guidelines, think outside the box and create a password that is unique. But remember you have to remember it so don’t get too far ahead of yourself.
You can start with this article on changing a user password in MEX
Happy Password Changing!