Avoiding Password Fasciitis with LionLock

[box type=”shadow” align=”aligncenter” ]Disclosure: I’m giddy with excitement to be a LionLock ambassador. Lord knows I have the mane for it.[/box]

A B C, easy as one, two, three
As simple as do re mi
A B C, one, two, three, baby, you and me girl

Those words always pop into my head as I try to come up with new codes that will be uncrackable in my password world. It used to be my chant and prayer to the password gods that this time, I recalled the right letters, numbers and symbols in the right order.

I’ve introduced you to LionLock and given you some tips on how to tame passwords as it relates to keeping your lists in a good place (you know, as opposed to on the post its decorating your monitor right now).

I struggled with passwords last week. There are some sites I hadn’t been to since I started using LionLock and that forced the blank stare, annoyance and utter look of despair that formed on my face. I like to call this condition password faciitis. Don’t know what that is? Here, let me help you.

password fasciitis /fas·ci·itis/ (fas-e-i´tis) (n): inflammation of the spirit at the audacity of the brain to not remember all 3,029 passwords with appropriate capitals, numbers and symbols. Password fasciitis presents with eye twitching, the feeling that you’ve been given a right-hook to the eye, side mouth and a variety of colorful (yet not password related) phrases. You could end up looking like this as you stare at your screen:

As I struggled with remembering and then resetting and then making sure I had it all captured in my Vault I wondered about your passwords. How do you generate them? How do you come up with them?

I have a hierarchy of passwords. What does that mean? Sites where I have little to no personal information get a certain type of password and they get systematically more complicated as the level of information contained within the site goes up. But I will say I’m guilty of doing a few things I shouldn’t have.

Here’s a short list of password don’ts for y’all:

• Don’t use names of significant others, children, pets, etc.
• For numbers: don’t use phone numbers, social security numbers of birth dates
• Don’t reuse or recycle passwords across multiple accounts

Below are a list of tips that I used just last night as a friend thought her computer had been hacked:

• Keep a clean machine! Yes, this even applies to you Mac heads. Make sure that you keep all your software up-to-date
• Don’t forget to set your security software to monitor continuously and not just do it manually when you feel something is wrong
• If something looks odd or suspicious, delete it! How many of you guys have gotten the email with just a link from your friend’s account? And how many of you have clicked on it and gotten yourself into trouble?

What you should do is:

• Include a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols
• Rotate your passwords
• Use a secure password management tool to help keep you safe

I love that LionLock has a password generator that helps you create random, ridiculous and secure passwords (as opposed to: “password” and”12345678″ both of which made the top 3 most common passwords in 2013). It helps me keep myself (and my client’s information) safe.

It also helps me not tear my hair out when I can’t remember a password. I can’t tell you what a relief it’s been to find myself with password faciitis but knowing immediately that I have the cure: LionLock!

Without divulging your passwords, do you select them randomly and how secure do you think they are?

Disclosure: I am a LionLock Ambassador. All opinions, thoughts and total lack of keeping passwords in my brain are purely my own.