It was an ordinary day. Trying to "log-on" to my mom's account information. I have been handling my mother's banking, insurance, and anything related to money accounts for the last five years, since she moved to Moravian Manor Retirement Community in Lititz, PA. And, she loves it! No more worries for the rest of her life. And for me ........ I now have to worry about her finances as well as my own. But that's what children are for, isn't it? Anyway, getting back to "logging-on." For the life of me I can't remember what the password is that I need to access her account. I have to dig up the sheet of paper that I have all the User IDs and passwords listed on in order to get any further. Uh, Oh! Where did I put it? I keep it hidden so no one can find it, and that happens to be me today. I'm dialing right now to ask my wife where she put it. I know she didn't put it anywhere, but when she remembers where I put it, I feel better. Does everyone have the same trouble as I do? Seems that most places where you need a User ID have a button you push if you forgot one or the other. So there ..... I'm not the only one who forgets them. Years ago when I first needed a password at the ATM window I should have thought of a password that would be good for every other account in my life. But, I didn't, and now I have over a dozen passwords that I use. If one doesn't work, I try the next, then the next and so forth until one works. Experts tell you not to use your address or phone number or something that any crook could guess. I saw a list in a publications recently that gave the top 25 easiest passwords to guess and steal. A few of them, from easiest to hardest, were: password, 123456, abc123, monkey, letmein, trustno1, dragon, baseball, I love you, shadow, 123123, superman, football. Did I guess your password with my list? I used to have baseball as my password, but changed it when I found out a couple of my friends had the same password. Remember the Seinfeld episode when Kramer tried to guess what George's password was? Remember "Bosco"? According to SplashID there are words that you should avoid if you can. "qazwsx" is one of them. If you haven't figured out what that is, it is the left-hand side two rows of the keyboard from top to bottom. Easy to type, but also easy to guess. Identity theft is growing so don't get caught with a common password. Here are some tips from the experts that will make it harder for hackers to get into your accounts: GO LONG - use at least 12 keystrokes, since it would take hackers more than 17,000 years to crack; MIX IT UP - use upper and lower case letters, underscores, and symbols like @ and %; and FINESSE YOUR FAVORITES - for easier recall (that means me) base your passwords on foods you like, TV shows or first letter of a song, but do it with tweaks, symbols and conscious misspellings. Whatever you choose, the experts still tell you not to use the same password for every account you have. If a crook gets one of you passwords, you don't want him to clean out every account that you have. For additional help you can go to a great place that can help you; microsoft.com/security and then select "Create Strong Passwords." And when all else fails, call your wife like I do. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy. PS - check out the following YouTube clip for a good laugh.
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