Protect yourself with strong passwords

With the burgeoning sophistication of hackers these days we thought it would be a good time to remind everyone to take a look at your current password management practices.  A strong password not only protects your ‘stuff’ but also benefits the overall network health of service providers.

Best practices for password management vary greatly; however, most sources agree that a strong password leverages a combination of letters, numbers and special characters. Here at Modwest, we have implemented the following requirements for our customers’ passwords:

• Must be different from the User ID.
• Contain a minimum of 8 characters and a maximum of 32.
• Must contain 1 capital letter, 1 lower case letter, and 1 numeral or special character.

Finally, avoid using common dictionary words or personal information like your pet’s name or street address. These combinations are easily solved by password guessers. Throw these password guessing applications off by randomly adding characters and numbers somewhere in your passwords.

If you have any password management recommendations, tips, or tricks, please comment!