3 On Your Side: Choosing A Better Password
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With so many stories of hackers threatening the safety of our personal information, it's more important than ever to have a good passcode. But 3 On Your Side Consumer Reporter Jim Donovan finds that people are still making bad password choices.
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A new study shows that iPhone users, who you would think are tech savvy, tend to use easy-to-break pass codes. The top pin numbers for iPhones are pretty easy to guess. The numbers 1234, 0000 and 1111 are used most frequently. Some of the top passcodes follow typical formulas, like moving in a line up and down the pad. And then there's 5683. Not so obvious, right? But as it turns out, that number represents the word love.
With so many horror stories about hacking, you really need to keep your passwords secure. Over the last few months, we've heard about many instances of big companies' systems being hacked. Sony suffered a massive breach of its online video game network. Citigroup has seen its credit card servers hacked, and Google has pointed the finger at China for targeted attacks on Gmail.
The folks at Microsoft say that the ideal password is long and complex—meaning it has letters, punctuation, symbols and numbers. They say that, whenever possible, use at least 14 characters or more.
For more advice, and to check to see how strong your passwords are visit: www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/passwords-create.aspx
Reported by Jim Donovan, CBS3
