Passwords

In most cases, the only thing that protects your money, your reputation, and your livelihood are the passwords you use to protect them. Computer security, online accounts, and everything else all pretty much rests on your ability to make and keep good passwords. So why is it that the average person spends so little time and effort doing it right?

Chances are it's because they were never taught how or why they needed to do so. Well, let's change that!

Making Good Passwords

To understand what makes a good password, let's talk about what makes a bad one first.
Making good passwords can be complex, but here are some tips and tricks that will make it easier.

Password Protection

Once you've taken the trouble to make a good password, the next step is to keep it safe!
Now that you've done all this work, you have to learn the most important rule of all: DON'T GIVE THEM AWAY!
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TJX Fires Employee for Publicizing Their Weak Security

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TJX, the company that is known for having the largest data breach in history (so far), has not implemented better security and might have gotten worse. The employee that blew the whistle on them has been caught and fired for it.

TJX now has a firm that scours the internet to find bad things posted about them, which is how they found the message and fired him for it. Too bad they don't appear to have hired anyone to beef up operational security or to convince people to use strong passwords.

Hey! That probably means they'll find THIS page. Sweet.

If that's the case, then here's my message to them: Stop storing all that personal data about us against our will and you won't have to pay for more security. You can't lose what you don't have, duh!

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TJX Data Breach Up to 94 Million Victims

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If you've been following this breach, the key problem here is two part:

1) TJX is the parent company of several other companies including TJ Maxx. Each of those companies shared data with TJX creating a massive database (and a single target for the hackers).

2) TJX (and others) shouldn't have stored the credit card data in the first place and when they did, they should have used better security.

Though they'll blame "clever hackers" for the breach, the fault instead lies squarely with TJX who's business practice of storing credit cards against people's will along with negligent use of outdated wireless encryption (WEP) first created a giant target and then then left a gaping hole for the bad guys to be able to go and get it.

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If you like to keep your money and safe yourself the trouble and hassle of getting nailed by a bad or fraudulent retailer online, you need to learn to identify them before it's too late.
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Related Guide

Once you've gone through the trouble to make an online account with a company, make sure you protect your passwords properly

... or check out any of my other guides and tutorials by clicking here!

Bad Passwords

To understand what makes good passwords, first check out some of the worst passwords out there and what makes them so bad.

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Password Tips and Tricks

It's impossible to expect someone to make good passwords by just giving them some rules. There are tricks that make your passwords secure and easy for you all at the same time.

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Password Protection

It's really a skill to come up with secure passwords that you can remember. Once you've learned how, remember that it doesn't matter how good you are if you don't protect your password properly.

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Password Mugging

A disturbing new practice among websites and services is where they ask you for your user name and password to other sites. I call this "Password Mugging"

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Validating Webstores and Services

It can be hard to know who to trust and who to not trust online, but there are things you can do to verify who the good guys and bad guys are before it's too late.

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Research Products

One of the best things about shopping online is the ability to research information online.

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Paying Online

Ever been nervous about paying online for something. Just take a second to learn about the various options and put your mind at ease.

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