Well, here we are again, time for a blog update.  This time we are going to talk about passwords.  Everyone knows the importance of passwords in our new digital age, but do you know how to create a truly strong password?  I’ll bet you good money that by the time you have finished reading this article you will have been convinced to change your password.

So how are passwords cracked?  There are several different ways, but the most common way is by understanding the way a person thinks.  Social engineering is what this type of hack is called.  By trolling your social networking site (i.e. Facebook, Myspace, and blogging accounts) a hacker can quickly determine the name of your children, spouse, and favorite hobbies.  Using this info I’ll bet that half of the readers here would easily have their systems hacked into.

The second most common way passwords are cracked is by simply reading them from your computer.  In the early days passwords were stored in “plain text” format.  Very quickly, software creators realized that saving passwords in such a way created a great security flaw.  And so they encrypted the passwords.  Ever since then hackers have developed many new ways to crack a password.

What can you do to prevent someone from easily accessing your personal data?  The best solution is to create a difficult password that only you can remember.  One of the best methods for developing a strong password is to first create a phrase you can remember.

“I go to New Mexico to fly fish”

Now using this phrase, take the first letter of each word “I g t n m t f f”.  For the “to” in the phrase substitute numbers and then capitalize some of the letters like this: Ig2Nm2Ff

You have now created an unbreakable password that is extremely difficult to guess.

Thank you for reading, be safe and enjoy your technology.