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We all know that one of the biggest parts of keeping your accounts secure is not only using strong passwords, but also changing them frequently. But who really does that? How old are the passwords you’ve got in rotation? Is there one in particular that sticks out as ancient? One to pass on to the grandkids?
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Okay, probably a stupid question but why should a password become weaker with time?
I can see that if a site has a load of passwords hacked then it’s a good idea to change your password but apart from that?
I’ve just had my WebHost require me to change all my passwords (FTP,webmail, email etc) to ‘enhance’ security. Sadly, as I expected, this resulted in me having no email for a couple of days as their server “corrupted” one of my passwords and it had to be reset at their end (after a couple of hours on hold to various assistants “too busy to take my call”)
Colour me sceptic but I don’t see how changing passwords significantly increases my security but can “fix” what isn’t broken. Enlighten me.
It’s based on the principle that sometimes things get hacked, and nobody finds out about it. The passwords then exist out in the ether for anyone to use, and no-one knows they should change their password specially. So if you changed every month say, that cuts down the usability window.
Time is the fourth spatial dimension. Over time there is a bigger chance of a hack or a criminal getting hold of your credentials; so you are eliminating an entire space-time dimension.
It sure makes space time bandits criminal behaviour far more difficult
Now if only we can figure out how to reduce the chances of a password hack in the pesky vertical dimension..
A) Time is not spatial, its temporal (though that’s tautological)
B) Its not THE fourth dimension, its one of the four dimensions which we experience (3 spatial and 1 time) Minute Physics explains it well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9sbdrPVfOQ
C) I’m not sure how you’re envisioning someone will crack a password spatial…
Practically all of my Passwords are generated via KeePass. They are as long as allowable and as complicated as allowable. I must admit that I don’t change them very often, but at least if one gets hacked it won’t expose the rest.
A good 5 or 6 years for a lot of them I think, and if the account is still active, then there’s at least one that’s 14 or so years old.
Yeah I have one for the sites that I don’t mind if they are hacked that is at least 10 years old
I’ve never been “hacked” I use that term loosely because it is so overused and most of the time your account wasn’t hacked, you gave them your details. I don’t see why people trust sites they never actively find, like I’ve had gfs in the past who get a pop up saying they have a virus and end up buying the software it suggests. Like how dumb can people be? Most people I know end up getting an email saying you’ve had a security issue, please login at this site and change your passwords and they do it……..
I’ve never had anti virus software apart from stuff like spybot or malwarebytes now, I’ve never been “hacked” because I don’t give out my information to a phishing site like an idiot.
Why people love IOS so much though, they just don’t know how to use a PC. I mean my Mother keeps buying new Laptops when hers gets slow and ends up buying something barely better. Like For the average user who uses a Laptop the bottleneck is the HDD, buy an SSD and see how much faster your Laptop is. Newsflash, Mac OSX isn’t faster than Windows, they just pack SSDs into all their stuff as standard.
I’m sorry but thats bull. Some people just like the MAC OS (iOS is for the mobile devices) because it suits their needs. My laptop is fast without an SSD and its been more reliable than my PC was, and it just syncs up with my iOS devices. My Mac has been more secure and not got any viruses yet (this is just my experience), plus Mac OSX has been much faster than Windows was for me back then and I just don’t feel like going back to Windows yet however I have no issue with using it, it has improved massively. But just thought I’d enlighten you on why I personally prefer Mac OS to Windows and that its not just a case of SSDs.
My oldest password is shockingly 33 years old!