See why you must password your computer

A Password is a secret code or key issued to the computer to be able to identify you and grant you access.

Keeping away unwanted access to your computer and its files is always a critical requirement for maintaining a safe computer.

Unfortunately, many people own computers but very few take seriously the issue of password maintenance practices.

A password is like a key to your apartment. If you go out of your home without locking the door, be sure any illegal person with the intention of invading your residence will do that effortlessly and without resistance.

And after locking your house, if you misplace the key, you will have to stay outside if you cannot provide the exact key or spare.

Password comes in different levels.  The very first level of password implementation is at the operating system level (windows, Mac, Linux etc.).

Beyond that level, system setup can as well be secured with a password before we proceed to the various applications resident in the system.



Maintaining good password practices help to secure your computer and its files.

Many people all over the world have lost fortunes to carelessness in terms of password habits, organisations are not exempted.

Healthy Password Habits

There are some principal habits we must imbibed to ensure our computer systems are well secure and protected from unwanted access.

1. Set password strength

Password strength entails the complexity of the password. The more complex a password is, the lesser the chance of the system been hacked.

Strong passwords are very complex in nature. Weak passwords are often simple passcodes that can easily be guessed.

According to Symantec.com, the following are the first 500 worst passwords of all time (table Credit- Symantec). These passwords can be easily guessed and gotten correctly by hackers. You may avoid them.

NO	Top 1-100	Top 101–200	Top 201–300	Top 301–400	Top 401–500
1	123456	porsche	firebird	prince	rosebud
2	password	guitar	butter	beach	jaguar
3	12345678	chelsea	united	amateur	great
4	1234	black	turtle	7777777	cool
5	pussy	diamond	steelers	muffin	cooper
6	12345	nascar	tiffany	redsox	1313
7	dragon	jackson	zxcvbn	star	scorpio
8	qwerty	cameron	tomcat	testing	mountain
9	696969	654321	golf	shannon	madison
10	mustang	computer	bond007	murphy	987654
11	letmein	amanda	bear	frank	brazil
12	baseball	wizard	tiger	hannah	lauren
13	master	xxxxxxxx	doctor	dave	japan
14	michael	money	gateway	eagle1	naked
15	football	phoenix	gators	11111	squirt
16	shadow	mickey	angel	mother	stars
17	monkey	bailey	junior	nathan	apple
18	abc123	knight	thx1138	raiders	alexis
19	pass	iceman	porno	steve	aaaa
20	fuckme	tigers	badboy	forever	bonnie
21	6969	purple	debbie	angela	peaches
22	jordan	andrea	spider	viper	jasmine
23	harley	horny	melissa	ou812	kevin
24	ranger	dakota	booger	jake	matt
25	iwantu	aaaaaa	1212	lovers	qwertyui
26	jennifer	player	flyers	suckit	danielle
27	hunter	sunshine	fish	gregory	beaver
28	fuck	morgan	porn	buddy	4321
29	2000	starwars	matrix	whatever	4128
30	test	boomer	teens	young	runner
31	batman	cowboys	scooby	nicholas	swimming
32	trustno1	edward	jason	lucky	dolphin
33	thomas	charles	walter	helpme	gordon
34	tigger	girls	cumshot	jackie	casper
35	robert	booboo	boston	monica	stupid
36	access	coffee	braves	midnight	shit
37	love	xxxxxx	yankee	college	saturn
38	buster	bulldog	lover	baby	gemini
39	1234567	ncc1701	barney	cunt	apples
40	soccer	rabbit	victor	brian	august
41	hockey	peanut	tucker	mark	3333
42	killer	john	princess	startrek	canada
43	george	johnny	mercedes	sierra	blazer
44	sexy	gandalf	5150	leather	cumming
45	andrew	spanky	doggie	232323	hunting
46	charlie	winter	zzzzzz	4444	kitty
47	superman	brandy	gunner	beavis	rainbow
48	asshole	compaq	horney	bigcock	112233
49	fuckyou	carlos	bubba	happy	arthur
50	dallas	tennis	2112	sophie	cream
51	jessica	james	fred	ladies	calvin
52	panties	mike	johnson	naughty	shaved
53	pepper	brandon	xxxxx	giants	surfer
54	1111	fender	tits	booty	samson
55	austin	anthony	member	blonde	kelly
56	william	blowme	boobs	fucked	paul
57	daniel	ferrari	donald	golden	mine
58	golfer	cookie	bigdaddy	0	king
59	summer	chicken	bronco	fire	racing
60	heather	maverick	penis	sandra	5555
61	hammer	chicago	voyager	pookie	eagle
62	yankees	joseph	rangers	packers	hentai
63	joshua	diablo	birdie	einstein	newyork
64	maggie	sexsex	trouble	dolphins	little
65	biteme	hardcore	white	0	redwings
66	enter	666666	topgun	chevy	smith
67	ashley	willie	bigtits	winston	sticky
68	thunder	welcome	bitches	warrior	cocacola
69	cowboy	chris	green	sammy	animal
70	silver	panther	super	slut	broncos
71	richard	yamaha	qazwsx	8675309	private
72	fucker	justin	magic	zxcvbnm	skippy
73	orange	banana	lakers	nipples	marvin
74	merlin	driver	rachel	power	blondes
75	michelle	marine	slayer	victoria	enjoy
76	corvette	angels	scott	asdfgh	girl
77	bigdog	fishing	2222	vagina	apollo
78	cheese	david	asdf	toyota	parker
79	matthew	maddog	video	travis	qwert
80	121212	hooters	london	hotdog	time
81	patrick	wilson	7777	paris	sydney
82	martin	butthead	marlboro	rock	women
83	freedom	dennis	srinivas	xxxx	voodoo
84	ginger	fucking	internet	extreme	magnum
85	blowjob	captain	action	redskins	juice
86	nicole	bigdick	carter	erotic	abgrtyu
87	sparky	chester	jasper	dirty	777777
88	yellow	smokey	monster	ford	dreams
89	camaro	xavier	teresa	freddy	maxwell
90	secret	steven	jeremy	arsenal	music
91	dick	viking	11111111	access14	rush2112
92	falcon	snoopy	bill	wolf	russia
93	taylor	blue	crystal	nipple	scorpion
94	111111	eagles	peter	iloveyou	rebecca
95	131313	winner	pussies	alex	tester
96	123123	samantha	cock	florida	mistress
97	bitch	house	beer	eric	phantom
98	hello	miller	rocket	legend	billy
99	scooter	flower	theman	movie	6666
100	please	jack	oliver	success	albert

Therefore, if you are in the habit of issuing simple non-complex passwords like any of the ones above, just know that you can easily be hacked be it on your computer at home or on your online platforms.

But complex passwords are a combination of  alphanumeric and string characters.

Combination of alphabets e.g  xti, numbers example 173, special characters like #,)&+. gives more  difficulty to your potential hacker to access your computer.

Example of a complex password can be something of this nature  zwe+=yx75xe*pto

Although, it is generally believed that it is safer not to put your computer on the network as there is no perfect solution to hacking anywhere in the world, however  a password such as this zwe+=yx75xe*pto can hardly be guessed.

Beyond all this, computer security experts declare that passwords derived from 6 different diceware words (e.g nikko puma high harm shake jazzy) will extremely difficult to guess.

 

1. Set password expiration

Password expiration is the facility that allows password to expire thereby ensuring change is made from time to time.

Most regulatory standards recommend between 30 to 90 days for expiration duration.

This means for instance your windows password has been either set to expire after 30 days or 60 or 90 days as the case maybe.

You can actually turn on and off the feature in most operating systems like windows. While in applications it depends on the requirements given to the developer.

But it is a very good practice to include such strict password features in every application to be developed.

2. Set account lockout number of attempts

In most operating systems like windows, there is a facility for restricting login attempts, as well the feature can be enabled on the system.

This feature ensures that a user is locked out permanently should the person make wrong login attempts up to a certain number of times e.g. 3 times.

This will help to guide against incessant login attempts by which hackers often employ to guess your password.

3. Secure your password

Do not expose your password to anyone. It is better you memorise it instead of writing it in your diary, mobile phone or jotter.

This is because chances are that you can lose any of those items into some unsafe hands. It is also not a healthy culture to store passwords on your computer system.

4. Encrypt your passwords

For all software stored, there is the need to encrypt them to ensure they are not kept in an easily readable format.
This ensures that unwanted access is not granted to systems, solution and databases.

As you engage in all these healthy password habits, I am sure you will enjoy some safety using your computer without been hacked easily.