Internet: There Ought to be a Law

There Ought to be a Law

Written by Rosalyn Bronstein

I hadn’t fully realized repparttar

extent of

computer hacking problem until I began receiving feedback from repparttar 118567

article I recently wrote. Apparently, lots of others have had similar –and some much more upsetting experiences. Web sites that legitimate individuals worked hard to create and optimize have been “visited and changed”, and e-mails have gone out, supposedly from their address, but in actuality from some computer spewing fraudulent messages – and very likely to millions of recipients they don’t even know about.

I’ve had that dreaded experience a number of times. Since I write frequently and send out lots of articles, I decided to use a distribution service to try and eliminate some of these problems. It’s helped enormously. Now, repparttar 118568 only e-mail account I need worry about is my “throw-away” one, where all repparttar 118569 junk mail goes.

Actually, since I’ve begun using private messaging, I’ve found that spam and junk mail are a thing of repparttar 118570 past. With private messaging, there is no spam – it’s a closed environment – and repparttar 118571 only people who are sending me messages are my friends and family. These are people I want to hear from, and look forward to hearing from. There’s no advertising, and I don’t have to be afraid of receiving computer viruses – that doesn’t happen. I know that whenever I send or receive using this service, my communication will be private and secure. And I find it easier than e-mail.

How to manage your username and password the easy and secure way

Written by Jerry Yu

Have been an Internet user for more than 9 years, I have 100's of logins and passwords to keep. I'm paranoid. I'm now even more paranoid after I joined YMMSS because I use online payment systems on weekly basis if not daily.

I used to use Microsoft Excel to manage my usernames, passwords, and other registration information, both online and offline. Excel is not safe because there are programs to crack password protected Excel workbooks and I even cracked repparttar spreadsheet and VBA source code password for one of my old Excel financial models I developed. Today I still use Excel to store some personal information but I only save repparttar 118565 Excel file on my another PC that is not connected to Internet.

In my article "6 Essential Steps to Protect Your Computer On repparttar 118566 Internet", I highly recommended repparttar 118567 award winning RoboForm. Free version of RoboForm (http://www.roboform.com) does come with limitations such as 10 Passcards only. If you don't want to buy repparttar 118568 Pro version (costs $29.99 as of my writing), there is an easy-to-use freeware (see below) you can download right now and manage unlimited usernames and passwords.

Download freeware Password Safe from SourceForge.net - repparttar 118569 Open Source community.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/passwordsafe/

Here are some great features of Password Safe:

- No installation is required. Simply download and double click repparttar 118570 pwsafe.exe file.

- Easy portable. Just copy and paste repparttar 118571 EXE file and .dat database file to any disks. Be aware that when you open Password Safe in repparttar 118572 other disk, you need to specify repparttar 118573 database file location (the .dat file).

- One master password unlocks an entire password database that can contain all your other passwords.

- Grouping. Usernames and passwords can be grouped into different categories you define, eg. Email Address, Payment, etc. You are in total control.

- Strong, random password generation.

- Copy username and password to clipboard so that you don't have to type them. Always keep in mind that you should never type any username and password.

- Browse to URL. With one click, repparttar 118574 URL related to your username and password can be opened in your default web browser. Another save on typing.

- You can create more than one password database (but you have to memorize more than one master password. Not recommended.)

Here are some tips of using Password Safe (version 2.04) and managing password in general.

Tip #1 - Always create a strong master password (Safe Combination as used in repparttar 118575 software).

Strong password should meet repparttar 118576 following criteria:

- At least 8 characters long to prevent cracking. The longer repparttar 118577 better.

- The password should contain lowercase, uppercase, numeric, and any other characters that are available on keyboard.

- Ideally you should not use any meaningful words or numbers in repparttar 118578 password. Totally random password is repparttar 118579 best.

Tip #2 - Let PasswordSafe generate random password for you.

To generate random password:

- Click repparttar 118580 menu item Edit.

- Select Add Entry (or use corresponding icon button).

- When repparttar 118581 dialogue window opens, on repparttar 118582 right hand side, you can see a Random Password Generate button. Click it, a random password will be automatically inserted in repparttar 118583 Password field.

The generated random password is constructed according to repparttar 118584 password policy defined in Password Safe. You can modify repparttar 118585 default policy.

- Click repparttar 118586 menu item Manage. - In repparttar 118587 dropdown menu, click Options. - Click repparttar 118588 Password Policy tab. - Change repparttar 118589 policy based on repparttar 118590 strong password criteria stated above.

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