It’s a wise idea to follow the calendar year when changing passwords to your online sites, financial/banking sites and computer systems. At Computerware, Inc., we recommend changing these passwords at least once every three months. It’s also important that you don’t reuse passwords or use the same passwords for two different resources.
If your social media account gets hacked, you don’t want the attacker to also be able to gain access to your Amazon.com and banking accounts simply because you used the same password for both sites. Maintaining separate passwords is a lot of work — but the cybersociety we live in demands it.
A good password will be composed of both lowercase and CAPITAL letters, numbers and !@#$%^ (symbols). Passwords for various sites should always be different, but they can be similar. You may use J@nu@ry1! for site A and J@nu@ry1@ for site B.
Keep in mind: Your IT department or provider can help you develop strong password policies.
Alan Edwards, CISM, is chief information officer at Computerware, Inc., in Vienna, Virginia.
