| Maintaining a secure computer is a good defense | | | | method known as "brute force". That means the |
| against becoming a victim of Identity Theft. Use a | | | | attacker is taking every possible combination of |
| secure password. By secure, I mean a password | | | | numbers and letters and special characters and |
| that is not easily guessable, such as a word you | | | | creating a hash to try and match the hash stored |
| may find in the dictionary. These types of | | | | by the computer. |
| passwords can be found by someone using what | | | | To prevent yourself from being subjected to a |
| is known as a "dictionary attack" This type of | | | | "brute force" attack, you can set up a security |
| attack involves using the words that are found in | | | | policy that will disable the account after a certain |
| the dictionary and comparing those to a hash that | | | | number of unsuccessful attempts. |
| has been generated by the Operating System. If | | | | To further prevent yourself from being |
| the attack matches the hashes, then the | | | | compromised since there are programs that can |
| password has been compromised. Don't use | | | | download the hashes stored in your computer, |
| birthdays or Social Security Numbers as well. It | | | | you may want to set some kind of time limit for |
| has been recommended that your password be | | | | your passwords. A good example would be that |
| at least 8 characters long, including small and | | | | the password would have to be changed every |
| capital letters, numbers, and special characters. | | | | 90 days, and the same password can't be used |
| A password like "alphabet" can easily be | | | | within a 180 period. This will help ensure that if |
| compromised. If you were to change it up a little | | | | someone did get the hash of your password, that |
| by making every other letter a capital, | | | | by the time it is compromised, it would be an |
| "AlPhAbEt", this will improve the security. You can | | | | obsolete password. |
| then take it a step further and replace the "E" | | | | Try to check your logs to see if there have been |
| with the number "3", so then your password | | | | any attempts on the password. This will certainly |
| looks like "AlPhAb3t". Then take the "l" and change | | | | let you know if someone is looking at your |
| it to the number "1" or even the "!". So now the | | | | computer in order to compromise the data that is |
| password looks like "A!PhAb3t". It will take a super | | | | stored on it. |
| computer an extremely long time to break this | | | | By maintaining a secure password, you are |
| password. | | | | ensuring that your private information will remain |
| At this point the attacker would have to use a | | | | private. |