Passwords are the keys to our digital world. Like physical keys, they should be treated with respect and only given to those people who need to “unlock” something, in this case a computer or website. Unlike physical keys, they are easily stolen, discovered or duplicated without the permission or knowledge of the user who owns the password, especially if they write them down and leave them somewhere where others could find them. Furthermore, users have a tendency to reuse passwords multiple times and at multiple sites. This is like having the locks on your office, your home, your garage, your safety deposit box, and your car all be keyed to use the same master key. If someone steals or duplicates the key, they will have access to everything. Although this is convenient, it is not desirable. With passwords, it’s impossible to know if someone else knows your password, especially if it was written down somewhere. And if a user has reused that password, their private data is even more at risk.

Therefore we urge people to take the following simple steps:
1) Regularly change your most important passwords, at least once per year, to ensure that your information stays private and secure
2) Use unique passwords for each website or device that you login in to. Refrain from using the same password more than once
3) Use a secure password vault to keep track of your unique passwords

Because password management is such a big hassle for most (all) computer users today, we are offering a briefing titled “Password Management Made Easy – well, sort of” on February 18th, 2015 from 7:30AM – 8:30AM. We would love to have you and others from your circle of colleagues and friends attend. We will share lots of great information for you to take away. Seating is limited, so please let us know if you can make it by calling 517-679-3302. It will be a great use of your time!

~Jeff