Passwords Passwords

 


Humans never had more secrets throughout their evolution than they are having now and Passwords/PINs are the reasons. 

From internet banking to phone password, we are carrying these secrets with us. Even one password theft can be detrimental.  There used to be the time when they said, never write down your passwords, memorize them and destroy. This was possible when there used to be hardly couple of passwords, your computer login and your email login. Now that everyone on an average has about 30-40 passwords to be remembered and used, it is no more possible to follow that safety tip. And not just passwords but variety of user names too. I am very sure that everyone of us now keep the backup of passwords in one form or other.


Just that you should not keep the passwords backed up on your laptop, phone or other digital device. There are two risks in doing so:

Hacker Attack: Any device that connects to internet has probability of hacking attack, howsoever precautionary measures you take. For hackers it's their full-time job and they are sincerely onto it day and night. How much time do we give daily to keep our information safe? 

Device Failure: If you are lucky not to get attacked by a hacker,  one fine day the device can simply go dead. Now what? Submitting your device to any service center to retrieve your critical data will be another mistake to make which you will have to do.

Many people are relying on cloud software to store and retrieve private information including passwords. However, I think this is like having a deadlier vaccine for a deadly disease. I know that it becomes a business necessity for some operations to take help from such services, however I strongly recommend not to use these for personal use. When you have a simpler solution, do not complicate the life. God forbids, but I don't think most of us will be in a situation to sue and fight the international lawsuit against a cloud service company for deleting or jeopardizing your private information .


The best way to keep them safe is offline. Buy a couple of pocket diaries and list them down like below:

Site Name        User Name        Password

Keep these diaries safe in your house. If you have any qualms in doing so, means you trust the world wide web more than your family members and that's a very sad situation in life and I am deeply sorry for the same. One may argue that information won't be available to you wherever you go. A prima facie right, but not a strong argument when you compare it with the case where you carry it with you and lose it or misplace it. In case of emergencies you can always contact home to retrieve the information you need. Let me assure, there is no better way to safeguard your passwords than offline. You simply have to be disciplined enough to update them without fail whenever you change any password. A pocket diary can easily suffice for a decade of your passwords and so becomes the cheapest solution. 

Of course, if you are too lazy to write them down or have lost your hand-writing skills and want to store them digitally only, you can do that too. Simply buy 2-3 flash drives(for a stable storage). Use a spare device(which will never ever go on internet) to update the information and back them up on flash drives.  

And to conclude, treat all your passwords the same. Never allow your device to save your passwords. Don't be casual with any passwords. For e. g. we undermine secrecy of trivial looking sites like shopping, utility billing. Never do that. You may get the shock of your life. Just to imagine the worst, you may find police standing at your doorstep because some suspicious purchase was made from your account. 

There could be many similar examples. Hence, passwords and PINs needs to be dealt with seriously, please do it.


A security check: 

How many of you are having the passwords stored on this very device where you are reading this article?




Comments

  1. Thanks, its really an eye -opener, will follow some of them.

    ReplyDelete

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