A Few Words On Password Security

Have a webmail account? The most common method of gaining access to someone else's eMail account is by guessing the password. Take a look at this list of the ten most common passwords used on the Internet, and if any of your passwords come close to one of these, Change It!

The top 10 most common passwords
1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123

Do not use correctly spelled words in your password, or do common substitutions within correctly spelled words (zero for Oh or one for I). For 'challenge questions,' I recommend you create a set of false answers that only you know, and keep those written down -- another common method of gaining access to someone's account is to research their history and then guess the answer to challenge questions on the password reset page.

Don't make the mistake of thinking there's no harm in someone reading your eMail -- a criminal can usually find a treasure trove of personal information hidden in your Inbox. Google 'most common passwords' to see more passwords you should not be using.

Teamviewer

For desktop sharing remote support, Teamviewer really works great. Even runs on the Windows Emulator under Linux! Free for personal use.

Internet Explorer Still Unsafe -- Doh!

For 11 years, since the days of Netscape, I've implored people to quit using Internet Explorer. Using IE to browse the web is the 2nd most popular way a virus gets into your PC (opening a virus eMail attachement is 1st). This has not changed for 3 versions (6, 7 and 8) and countless updates over 11 years. With the most recent IE exploit 'found in the wild,' both Germany and France have joined me in warning people to quit using Internet Explorer to browse the web. My customers who religiously avoid Internet Explorer are far less likely to get a virus infection (100 to 1) than those who use IE. Mozilla Firefox is the browser I recommend -- why not give Firefox a try -- ITS FREE!