PASSWORD MANAGEMENT

Password are one of the first lines of defense that users have to protect their system. Unfortunately, not everyone is accustomed to remembering difficult passwords consisting of numbers and characters . The ever-increasing  number of passwords required to work in today’s world only makes this problem worse. People have compensated for this problem by writing down their password and keeping that information in an unsecured area, like stuck to a computer screen.

One of the first things a hacker will attempt to do against a system is run a program that will attempt to guess  the correct password of the  target machine. These programs can contain entire dictionaries from several different languages. In addition to words found in dictionaries , there programs often contain words from popular culture such science fiction movies and novels. Hackers like to attack people’s weaknesses. One of the major weaknesses is the reluctance to remember several, long, difficult-to –guess words as passwords. Therefore, once one is chosen, the likelihood that the same password is used for several accounts is very high. This is similar to the problem with default passwords because users have a tendency to keep the same password for a long period of time, thereby allowing the attacker that much more time to gain access to a system.

SELECTING  PASSWORD: : You should make your password personally memorable but difficult for other to guess.
       Use good password practices:
 DO 

Make strong password of at least 8 characters long using at least one each of the following combinations of numerals,UPPER and lower case letters and punctuation marks i.e
1 Numbers(0-9)
2. Uppercase (A-Z)
                        3.Lowercase letters(a-z)
                       4 Punctuation marks first group (! @ # $ % ^&*()_+=-)

DONT’T 

Use your login name or User ID.
Use your First or last name in any form.
Use any information about you that is easily obtainable.
Use a password with only alphabetic characters or only numeric characters
                        Increment your password by adding a number every time you have to change it.
                        Write down a password on a sticky note placed on or near your computer.
                        Use a real word found in dictionary. That’s right, a dictionary. Any dictionary!

                        Use the names of people, places, pets or other common items.
                        Share your password with someone else.
                        Use the default password provided by the vendor.

2. MAKE SURE YOUR PASSWORD IS:
      Private: it is used and known by you only.
      Secret: It does not appear in clear text  in any file or program or on a piece of paper stuck to  the monitor, well or desk

      Easily remembered: so  there is no need to write it down.

3.USE ONE OF THE FOLLOWING METHODS TO CREATE MEMORABLE BUT STRONG PASSWORD.
  Use the first letter of each word in a memorable phrase, saying , nursery rhyme, song tile
  Take two words and splice them together with one or more non-alphanumeric characters.
Take an ordinary word or phrase and change, delete or add characters so that it becomes nonsensical.

4. TO HELP YOU REMEMBER A PASSWORD YOU SHOULD TRY USING A MNEMONIC .A mnemonic is a formula or  rhyme to help you remember. For example.
My wedding anniversary is April 4------remember that date or there’ll be trouble.
If my car makes it through this year, ill be very luck indeed!

5.

CHOOSE A METHOD THAT YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE WITH:

    Make up some test password and then practice typing them into Notepad change them about until you feel comfortable with the typing- then delete the document.
NOTE: You must and are responsible for ensuring that your password are immdeiately changed once the work has been completed by the Technician.

Users will not be liable for any disciplinary action for revealing password in this scenario but the password must be changed immediately after any work has been completed.

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