I'm hoping it is anyway! Greetings to all!
I'm happy to say I'm alive and kicking and busy, busy, busy as an informatics grad student. Hopefully, by this time next year, I'll be well into completing my last year.
Anyway, there are so many interesting things I could talk about, but this news item today in the New York Times about RSA SecureIDs nearly stopped me in my tracks. I used one of these for quite some time and yes, multifactor authentication is the way to go for logins, but this is scary.
Remember to use complex passwords and rotate them on a regular basis. If your system allows it, use special characters (note: these may be limited), numbers, as well as both upper and lower case letters. Also, do not use words commonly found in the dictionary or things easily found out about you (i.e. your address, phone number, birth date, etc.)
If necessary, create your own rotating password and vary the special characters and caps every three months or however necessary.
As they used to say on one old police show, "Let's be careful out there!"
Showing posts with label passwords. Show all posts
Showing posts with label passwords. Show all posts
Friday, March 18, 2011
Monday, July 20, 2009
In the news and helpful hints
VA halts 45 IT projects (from www.healthcareitnews.com)
SSO provides relief for password headaches (also www.healthcareitnews.com)
SSO, or Single Sign On, is one, long overdue piece that is left out of many network authentication systems. Signing on to multiple information systems (mainframe, PC, etc.) during the course of a day can be mind-boggling, considering security and logging issues in hospital systems.
HINT: Do yourself a favor--rotate your passwords in a scheme you can remember. Don't write them down, but do write down any hints that may help you remember your scheme. If you rotate them regularly, based on your network rules (every 30, 60, 90 days, etc.), it's easier to remember, too. There are some password keeper programs (such as this one from SplashData) you may be able to use on a personal device (i.e. PDA, smartphone). Whatever you do...don't write your passwords down anywhere they can be used to access your account.
Ask your system administrator (if they'll tell you) how many unique passwords you need to have in a year. Many system administrators require xx amount of unique passwords per year or per system. In one of my former lives, our system kept a record of your last 6 passwords; another system only four.
SSO provides relief for password headaches (also www.healthcareitnews.com)
SSO, or Single Sign On, is one, long overdue piece that is left out of many network authentication systems. Signing on to multiple information systems (mainframe, PC, etc.) during the course of a day can be mind-boggling, considering security and logging issues in hospital systems.
HINT: Do yourself a favor--rotate your passwords in a scheme you can remember. Don't write them down, but do write down any hints that may help you remember your scheme. If you rotate them regularly, based on your network rules (every 30, 60, 90 days, etc.), it's easier to remember, too. There are some password keeper programs (such as this one from SplashData) you may be able to use on a personal device (i.e. PDA, smartphone). Whatever you do...don't write your passwords down anywhere they can be used to access your account.
Ask your system administrator (if they'll tell you) how many unique passwords you need to have in a year. Many system administrators require xx amount of unique passwords per year or per system. In one of my former lives, our system kept a record of your last 6 passwords; another system only four.
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