The password story
What Arthur did…
Arthur received an email which contained an attachment. Arthur was curious so he opened the attachment. Nothing appeared to happen so Arthur deleted the email and carried on reading his emails.
The consequence…
The attachment infected Arthur’s machine with a keylogging Trojan. This then stole all of his usernames and passwords and sent them to the remote attacker, along with his banking details!
When to immediately change your password
- If you responded to any email with your password.
- If your computer is/was infected with malware (e.g. a virus). Most malware these days steals your passwords and payment details.
How to create strong passwords
Weak and strong passwords
- Strong passwords contain numbers, upper and lowercase letters, symbols, and are not based on dictionary words.
- Weak passwords are short, based on dictionary words and do not contain all of the above.
It is good practice to use separate passwords for different accounts, then if one account gets compromised, the other accounts are not compromised too. Certainly don’t use personal/”home” passwords for work accounts (and vice versa).
Have a look at the following ideas for creating a strong password:
See the following video by CenturyLink on how to create secure passwords:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOZIWxKnyVU
Activity
Find out how you can create secure passwords, store your password securely and create unique passwords with this very interesting interactive guide created by HM Government.
UCL digifest 