The Whale Guide to Being Tech Savvy: Passwords

Passwords are one of the most basic tools in technology and yet, they can get us into a world of trouble.

How often do you change your passwords? Do you use the same one for every site?

If you answered not very often (or never) and yes, then it is time to change your passwords. The number one mistake people make, besides not changing the passwords, is to make them too simple.

You can write them down! Just put them in a safe place. Then, get creative with your passwords. Here's an example. Say I vacation a lot on Cape Cod, my Dad was born in 1931 and my elementary school was Roosevelt. I would make a password like this: Cod31Roosevelt.

Passwords are very easy to steal these days, so another suggestion is to change them every 6 months. Some common passwords you should never, ever use are:

1. password
2. 12345
3. letmein
4. admin
5. 12345678
6. password1

and my favorite...  iloveyou.  Yikes!

A little annoyance is worth not getting hacked into.