Password Rotation

This post is day 7 of the A Week Of Staying Safe series.

One of the easiest ways for a malicious user to get into one of your online accounts is if you choose weak passwords, e.g. “Monkey”. Although it seems pretty obvious “monkey” is a stupid password, I bet a lot of users use it. This article isn’t about choosing a secure password, instead it takes a look at a little security technique called Password Rotation tha will keep your accounts secure even if you use weak passwords.

What Is Password Rotation?

I look at it like this: instead of choosing new passwords all the time why not rotate them? Even if you use weak passwords, this is still a very good technique for keeping yourself safe, and it doesn’t take much time to do. In fact, I probably have over 150 online accounts and it only takes a few minutes to swap all of the passwords around.

Why Not Make New Passwords?

Because it is easier to use existing ones instead of memorizing new ones? In a way this is making a “new password” for your account, even though it was already used on another account.

Yes, It Works With Weak Passwords

Think about it for a second. Even if you use “password” and “monkey” as your passwords there are still some great benefits to swapping them every once in a while.

Just a fre quick notes: You should really use passwords that are quite a bit different. This won’t work as well if you use “money1″ and “money2″ as your main passwords. And your really important stuff like online bank accounts should always use their own distinct passwords.

How Often Should I Switch Them?

Even though I make up new passwords every 2-3 months I tend to swap them around a bit every 1-2 months. After I swap them that’ll restart the “cycle” and it’ll be another few months before I decide to swap them again or make entirely new ones.

A Week Of Staying Safe Articles:
Day 1 - The Ultimate Guide To Detecting E-Mail Scams
Day 2 - Huh? Who Sent That? - How To Find Out What Server Really Sent That E-Mail And How To Deal With Spam
Day 3 - Having A Good Host Can Sure Save Your Sanity
Day 4 - Top 3 Ways To Secure MySQL
Day 5 - Avoiding Make Fast Money Affiliate Scams
Day 6 - 17 Ways To Avoid Spyware Forever
Day 7 - Password Rotation

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