Potty time: safe and secure passwords

While most people will create passwords that are easy to recall, having a safe and secure password requires a lot from a person.

Character wise
A safe and secure password must use letters (a-z) in both cases (a-z and A-Z) alternately, numbers (0-9) and characters (@,$,%,&, etc) in one password alone. An example is abc@123. This is a 7 character password using alphanumeric (letters and numbers) characters and a special character.

Some may write their passwords as aBc@12E. In this example, a certain letter is capitalized to break the sequential pattern (i.e. a-b-c) and a number (3) is substituted for its alphabetical equivalent (3 = e).

Numbers and letters can be substituted for each other. Here is what I have so far: 1 = i, 3 = e, 4 = h, 0 = o.

Length wise
Long passwords are hard to crack. The longer the harder. I have seen people typing in about 12 characters using the QWERTY side of the keyboard along with the number row on top (with shift pressed) and the number pad at the right side. The password must look something like this "sg85@sgh89t8"

One can memorize all the characters. But at this time, we all have more than one account that requires a password. You have your email account (personal, office, business, and monkey-business), your blog account, your photo archive account (photobucket, flicker), internet bank account, and your online community account (friendster, facebook, yahoo! 360).

Well, you can use the same password in all your accounts. The only problem is if your password in one account is discovered all your other accounts are in danger.

Variety
You can vary you password pattern in different accounts. For accounts that you think may not be that important or that you can rebuild after it is ruined, just have a simple password that you can remember and someone else can guess.

For accounts that record you personal and financial assets, transactions, and communications, have a more complicated password for them.

If your account requires you to change the password regularly, try to come up with 3 different passwords that you can easily remember. You may write it down and keep it locked away. But committing it to memory is the safest way.

Connections
Most hackers or those who are plain troublemakers will want to find a connection between you and the password. If you deeply adore your a person or even just your cat, the hacker will just try using the cat's or person's name or nickname in different variations (alpahnumeric and special character combinations, forward, backwards, reversed segments) to access you account.

One way to avoid this problem but still retain a good chance of remembering the password is by connecting the password with someone or something that you used to know or have but is not in any way connected with you anymore.

An example will be a nickname you gave your toy when you were a child that nobody else outside your family knows about. Or the name or nickname of the person you used to plan in having a relationship then but did not bloom. Or the birthday of a person you have a crush with 10 years ago.

I hope this will help you make your accounts more secure. Happy computing!

Linux how to: LimeWire installation in Bayanihan Linux 4

I have just recently installed LimeWire 4.14 on my Bayanihan Linux 4 platform. I installed limewire so I can download a good torrent client since I could not find any workable torrent clients on the internet. Here are a few steps to follow in installing LimeWire on Linux.

Step 1. Download LimeWire

At the limewire home page, click on the "download" button at the top menu. Click the "basic" button as it allows you to download limewire for free. In the next page, be honest enough to click "I will not use limewire for copyright infringement." At the lower part of the next page, click the link to download "Other systems ()S/2, Solaris, Linux)" to begin downloading "LimeWireOther.zip".

Step 2. Extract LimeWire

Extract the zip file on to a folder where you wish to share LimeWire. It will create a folder named "LimeWire." Inside that folder is a shell script, "runLime.sh" to run lime wire.


Step 3. Set path

Edit the shell script using a text editor. In the first portion of the script type:

PATH=$PATH:/
export PATH

An example the path is " /home/user/java/jdk1.5.0_02/bin". Your java must be 1.5 or higher. LimeWire will use the bin files of java to function properly. Java 1.5 or higher comes with the Java Runtime Environment during installation. How to install this is another topic. You can download your java installer from here.

Step 3. Start LimeWire

To run limewire, open a terminal window and go to the folder /~/LimeWire then type:

$sh runLime.sh

And your limewire loads and you can begin downloading multimedia including torrents.

NOTE: Do not close the terminal or your limewire will close as well.

Internet security tips

Here are a few tips I picked up here and there on Internet security.

1. Always make sure that the "padlock" icon is visible on your browser. This padlock can be usually seen at the bottom-right portion of the browser window. This icon can also be found near the address box. The address box is where you usually type-in the name of the website or what is called the URL.

2. Before logging in to your account, always look for a link that says "using public computer" or something similar. Some websites provide this option to provide additional security for the user.

3. For Yahoo! users, the log-in interface allows the user to choose a picture from the user's files. The chosen picture will show on the log-in box signifying that the site is authentic and that it is secure.

4. Do not -- DO NOT -- always click "OK" whenever a window pops-up. Read the message first. If your action results to that pop-up, still take some time to read it thoroughly. Some browsers inquire if you trust the security certificate of the site you are opening especially if that site's security certificate has lapsed.

5. If you do not trust the site, try to see where the link will take you before clicking it. Place your mouse on the link until the arrow turns to a finger pointing at that link. At the bottom left portion of the browser window, you will find there the address where you will be taken.

6. Keep out of porn sites. Specially the unpopular ones. You can install a virus or trojan on your computer by just clicking the link.

7. When opening your email, be careful when opening attachments. I usually shy away from attachments with file extensions other than .jpg, .gif, .tff, 3gpp, other office files (.doc, .xls). Even if the email sender is your close friend, read their message first. If the message contains something that your friend does not usually send, avoid opening the attachments. Always try to avoid the .gfx, .vbs., and .exe files.