I decided today that I need to do a security audit of all of my internet accounts and set new passwords to much stronger ones. So first of all I changed my hotmail account, and then onto my Facebook account. Once I set the second password, in green letters the words:
Kata Laluan Tepat
Appeared below my password. What the heck is this? Apparently it means:
Right Password
In Malaysian, according to http://www.citcat.com/. On Yahoo! Answers others have said it means “Exact Phrase” taken from http://dictionary.bhanot.net/ but I could not find that reference anywhere on that site. So I am going with the Citcat translation. (Anyone who can actually speak Malaysian who can clear this up it would be great to hear from you).
Back to more secure passwords, to make a stronger password I am using some of the below principles in order to make it more difficult for a hacker to get into my accounts:
- a minimum eight characters
- a mix of upper and lower case letters
- at least one numeral, and
- at least one non-alpha numeric character—for example, a symbol.
- Avoid using dictionary or foreign words
- Change your password at least twice a year
- Avoid passwords like your name or business name
- Use different passwords for different systems
While I am not using cryptographic strength or ascii passwords, (I would never be able to remember them), the passwords will hopefully be able to slow most people down.
