Something cropped recently around passwords ( can’t say anymore for security purposes.  ) strength or the lack there of.

You are still using very obvious an simplistic passwords, so stop it now !

It’s amazing how you can really strengthen your passwords by using UppER and lOWer cASe in your passwords and chuck in a symbol or two ( and I don’t mean the crash bang variety ) and b0B’s y4 gR4ndm4 a rather secure password.

Why not pop over to: http://howsecureismypassword.net/ and test it. Now go and test your password, have a small panic attack and then go and think of something far better.

And remember, that site uses guesses based on a ‘standard pc’. If you were running something with a lot more horse power ( big server or computers linked together to create an ‘uber’ computer) your password will crack faster than a ice lolly on a hot day in Death Valley

To further add to this, I came across this article below which gives some thought to common passwords.

Any of yours in there ?

By Joe McKendrick

In spite of a constant drumbeat of news about hacking and cracking computer accounts, users still are employing extremely common and obvious phrases as passwords. A compilation of the most commonly used — and potentially most insecure — passwords seen over the past year was recently drawn up by Splashdata and reported in Mashable. Splashdata found that incredibly enough, the leading password in use today is the word “password.” Interestingly, number 4 on the list, the keyboard lineup of “qwerty,” is counterbalanced by item number 23, “qazwsx,” which is the first three rows of keys typed vertically.

 The list closely parallels that developed close to two years ago by Imperva, showing that these terms never go out of vogue.

Here is this year’s list:

1. password
2. 123456
3.12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

SmartPlanet colleague Tuan C. Nguyen provides a surprisingly simple technique for deriving a strong password that makes it difficult for hacking programs to arrive at the right brute force combination — employing a symbol in combination with an upper-case and lower-case letter.

Not everyone thinks that strong passwords are the answer, however. In another study on passwords, a Microsoft researcher conducted a cost/benefit analysis of efforts to encourage stronger passwords, and questions whether the costs of strong password management outweighs the benefits.

Think about passwords that you could easily memorise and that you don’t have to write down or inadvertently give away by mistake!

Look for association but nothing too obvious.  Friends, family, pet names and all know Sci-fi programs are a big no no.

As an example I use the details of the first car my grandfarther owned.

For example: TriumphTR83.5V8 – HowSecureis My Password says: About 5 Trillion Years

Or try playing with uPPer and lOWEr case and try playing with hyphens and spaces too.

So we try: TriuMPh TR8 3.5-V8 that becomes: About 60 quintillion years

Remember I.D theft, password pinchin is VERY BIG business. Thieves don’t rob banks or Post Offices these days ( well, nowhere as much ), they take your identity and data, much more valuable.

I’m quite sure our friend Kennedy ( That Mind Reader Guy ) knows many a simple techniques designed to make you give up your password. He’s very very good if you ever get the chance to meet him or attend one of his events, just don’t mention Derren Brown! Shameless plug over now.

Well, that’s enough for now but I do hope that’s given you some food for thought.