It's Password Time!

[TCH-Blog]

Advice on creating very strong passwords.

Creating strong passwords is part of an essential duty of any web master. This includes passwords for your email, ftp, mysql and of course cPanel user account.

It only takes one weak password and some bad guy and his brute force script and next thing you know your account has been compromised. This is enough to make a good day go south in a really fast way.

Here are some good tips for choosing a strong password ::

• Avoid using a single dictionary word. These are easily brute forced by dictionary-based scripts. Instead try choosing multiple, unrelated, words and special characters.
• Avoid familiar items such as names, business names or phone numbers, etc.
• Use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers, avoid replacing letters with numbers – as this is predictable for any script designed to brute force your password.
• Ensure your password is something memorable without being obvious.
• Beware of computers you cannot trust, key-loggers will bypass many forms of security

Using the cPanel password generator ::

If you are unable to create a password then you can always turn to the Password Generator which appears in cPanel next to password change dialogues. The passwords generated through this method will not be easy to remember, so make sure you make a note of this password in a secure method.

When changing any passwords in cPanel you will be offered the chance to use the Password Generator.

Using Browser plugins to create your passwords ::

There are several browser plugins that will create randomly generated passwords for you and will copy the password to your clipboard, allowing fast and easy password changing.

I personally use pwgen – Password Generator 0.5.1 for Firefox. You can find more information on this firefox plugin here.

Thank you for taking time to read about passwords today, I am confident that rotating your passwords and keeping them strong and secure can go a long way to protect your account and the TCH servers.

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