Posted on Thu, Apr 01, 2010 @ 11:28 PM
Are you overwhelmed by the number of passwords you have to remember? In order to be safe, you should have a different password to login to your computer, your online banking or credit card accounts and even another password for your e-mail.
Still using the same password for everything? Too many users think if their password is difficult enough no one will ever guess it, and that it’s ok to use it for everything. Wrong! Fox News reports, “Using the same password for multiple Web pages is the Internet-era equivalent of having the same key for your home, car and bank safe-deposit box.”
Change your approach! KeyLemon is a great tool anyone can use to handle their passwords in a snap. This new face recognition software is simple to configure and is compatible with Microsoft Operating systems, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and more.
How does it work? First you download KeyLemon on your computer and follow the installation instructions. You will be prompted to create your face model and replace your password with your face image. Then you are all set to enjoy the convenience of face recognition.
No more password frustrations! Have you ever been locked out of an account for trying the password too many times? Well, now you will have all of your passwords at your fingertips. KeyLemon works as a password manager for your favorite sites. Firefox even has a fancy plug-in called LemonFox that recognizes your KeyLemon account access and automatically logs you into your networking sites like Facebook and YouTube.
Fantastic security features. KeyLemon also comes equipped with Hijackers Tracking. This feature allows you to retrieve information about who tried to access your computer when you were away by letting you view pictures of the person who was in front of your computer before an automatic windows lock, or even a person who typed the wrong password into your computer when it was locked.
Taking a break? With KeyLemon, your computer will automatically lock when you leave and unlock when you return through face recognition. That way, you can top off your refreshment at the coffeehouse before chatting with your top client and no one will be able to access your computers files or programs.
Download KeyLemon today
www.KeyLemon.com
Posted on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 @ 12:07 AM
December 2009 a popular website named RockYou.com experienced a horrifying breach. A clever hacker managed to penetrate their systems stealing account information for 32 million users.
Social websites. A weakness for users?
RockYou and other social sites like FaceBook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, require personal information
like your e-mail address, your full name, and sometimes even your birthday or address to verify you are
a real human. While this information seems pretty generic to users, thieves gather this data to build profiles
on unsuspecting users. These profiles are ultimately used for identity theft or hacking personal accounts like for your bank.
Many people use weak passwords or the same passwords for multiple websites.
This is like leaving your car door open when you go o a baseball game. While there are many cars in the lot, a thief will steal the one that is easiest to access. If your password is easy to guess or is the same on your social sites and your e-mail or even your banking website, hackers will simply plug in the password over and over to see what they can compromise. In this digital age of instant gratification, even hackers are automating their processes to increase efficiency.
Hackers love password checkers.
Did you now that password checking software programs can run all 308 million possible letter combinations for a six letter password (using all upper or all lower case letters) in under 3 minutes
(www.hq.nasa.gov)? Quite impressive, but also startling.
You can protect yourself with these three golden
rules of creating strong passwords:
1. Make sure your password is 8 or more characters
in length.
2. Use a mix of the three basic mediums available:
letters (both upper and lower), numbers,
and special characters like !@#$%^?* or &.
3. Don't use only names or words from the dictionary,
they are easily identified by hackers.
Following these three simple criteria is easy, but
sometimes the password you come up with is difficult
to remember, right?
Try using first letter mnemonics to fool those evil hackers.
Think up a short sentence
you can easily remember like, "My daughter, Joy,
has 500 Barbies!" Then take the first letter of each word and the special characters in the sentence to create a impenetrable password you can chuckle about each time you use it,"Md,J,h500B!" Now that is a password hackers won't find in the dictionary. Keep in mind, the more bizarre your
sentence is, the more likely you are to remember it.
Let's take a look at password trends.
Just reviewing statistics pulled from the 32 million folks unfortunately entangled in the RockYou hack, we can clearly see a poor password trend on this social site.
Roughly 30% of users chose passwords whose
length is equal or less than six characters.
Almost 60% of users chose their passwords
from a limited set of alpha-numeric characters,
meaning letters or numbers next to each other
on a standard keyboard.
Nearly 50% of users used names, slang words,
dictionary words or trivial passwords they
could easily remember.
The most common password among the 32
million RockYou users compromised was
"123456".
(Impervia.com white paper titled Consumer Password Worst Practices)
What does this mean for users?
Wimpy,simple, weak passwords won't keep your private
information safe. If you have to, write more complex passwords and keep them in your wallet or purse. Better yet, jot down reminders of what your passwords are just in case someone gets hold of your cheat sheet.