Agape Blog

The easiest way for identity thieves to steal your identity online is by getting hold of your passwords. In order to safeguard your identity, password protection must be a part of your online security measures. Passwords vary in their degree of security protection, frequency of change, and typically vary in required characteristics from system to system.

When you use the Internet you will be in danger of losing money if a sensitive password such as the one you use for payment processing transactions becomes known to a thief. Needless to say what he will do with that password. But what need to be stressed is that the thief will also try to match the same password for different accounts you might have. For example, the thief might check to see if you have a PayPal account where the same password is used.

Almost crack-proof passwords are challenging to guess and a no-brainer to remember. In other words, a solid password includes a combination of number and letters and should not be too easy to spell or capture. For obvious reasons, the worst password is the one that is non-recallable. To avoid all these hassles, people mostly use simple passwords and create blunders. This is so beause they try to include the following things in their passwords, which can be easily guessed, if the thief is your acquaintance.

• Initials
• Birth dates
• Sequential words or number combinations (e.g., “qwerty,” “asdfg,” “12345″)
• Location (city, country)
• Middle name, Mother’s maiden name, etc.
• Favorite pet name, celebrity or other personal interests
• Dual names or words (like smithsmith, googlegoogle)
• Derogatory phrases - obscenities (like “yousuck”, “hell”)
• Passwords based on the company or web site provider

So always use strong passwords which cannot be easily cracked and make sure you are not your own worst enemy.