Why you need a safe password and how to create one

How easy is it for you to remember your computer’s Windows logon password? Does it even have one? How about the password you use for your online bank account? Are the two passwords the same or are they different? And how many online services do you use? How many have unique passwords? If you are like most people, who have trouble remembering their phone numbers, how (you might ask) are you supposed to remember all of your different passwords? Why not use the same password everywhere?

The main problem with using the same password for everything is that if someone finds out what your password is, they can potentially log in to your email account as you, and your banking service as you.

What security consultants recommend is that you use a unique password every time you create an account that requires a password to keep it secure. AND DON’T WRITE DOWN YOUR PASSWORDS

ANYWHERE! This is all very well, but when I worked as a PC support guy in a bank, I had to support 40 different systems. It took me a long time to successfully remember the password for each one.  Until I had an idea.

A safe password strategy

How DO you set about creating a safe, memorable but unique password for every service you use? A safe password needs to have these features:

• It should be a mixture of lower and upper case letters
• It should contain one or more numbers
• It should contain a punctuation character

First of all, think of a phrase that you can easily remember. Example: “Barney and Paul are my two kids’ names” – you need your own phrase not this one!

Secondly, take the first letter of each word in that phrase. Example: BaPamtkn

Thirdly, substitute an ampersand for any use of the word “and”. Example: B&Pamtkn

Now, change to a numeric each number in the phrase or add a number on the end. Example: B&Pam2kn

This is the “base” of your future passwords. Whenever you need a password for a service, start it off with the “base” and then add two letters from the name of the service you are using. Always choose the same two letters for each service, either the first two letters of the name or the first letter of each word in the name.

Examples: American Express might be “AE” or “AM”, Google Mail might be “Go” or “GM”. How you choose which letters is important as that is the only difference between your passwords.

So in our examples, the full password might be B&Pam2knAE and B&Pam2knGo.  How long would it take someone to guess those?

The beauty of this system is that you only have to remember your easily-remembered phrase and you can have a unique password for everything. The qualifier, or suffix you add on the end, is taken from the name of the service you are logging in to. So easy, so unbreakable.

Why not give this a go for yourself and see how easy it is? 

Why Understanding Vulnerability Management is Important

Wikipedia describes vulnerability management as "the cyclical practice of identifying, classifying, remediating, and mitigating vulnerabilities, especially in software and firmware". Vulnerability management is an integral part of computer and network security. If you are responsible for managing company servers and/or networks, it is vital for you to understand about, and implement, vulnerability management.

Where can vulnerability attacks come from?

• From outside the network
• From inside the network, perhaps via a VPN (virtual private network)
• From outside over the telephone, using such tricks as social engineering
• From an insider on the local network
• From an insider on the local system
• From malware

What might management fear from network vulnerability? These are a few examples:

•  A web server compromise can expose the organization to widespread ridicule.
• A server compromise might allow private customer data to be stolen, which could lead to claims for compensation, especially if it involves credit card details.
• An insider who is angry might do something mischievous, like launch a logic bomb to destroy data.
• An insider who feels aggrieved sells company trade secrets.
• Employees might be deceived by social engineering tricks, which might leak sensitive data to the press.
• A hacker who penetrates systems might find evidence of wrongdoing that can then be used to blackmail the company.

What should you know about vulnerability management?

• Vulnerabilities are gateways through which threats become manifest.
• Scanning for vulnerabilities without remediating them has little value.
• A little scanning and remediation is better than a lot of scanning and less remediation.
• Vulnerabilities that need fixing have to be prioritised based on those that pose the most immediate risk to the network.
• Security experts need processes to allow them to stay focused on vulnerabilities so that fixes can become more frequent and effective.

All an attacker needs is a toe-hold. If there is a single vulnerability left unfixed and it can be reached from outside the organization AND it is compromised, then the vulnerability can be used as a springboard to attack other systems on the network. If a data breach occurs and it is traced back to a flaw the company was aware of but hadn't fixed, the consequences can be serious.  Think of the “damages” phase of a court case!

So the regular pattern of vulnerability management should be to: scan the network and identify vulnerabilities; prioritise those that are found; identify fixes; and, apply the fixes.

The starting point for managing computer vulnerabilities is an asset register. What hardware AND software does the company own? What versions are they? Where is it? There are many software packages that can be obtained to automate this process, normally by searching the company network for attached systems and devices, discovering disk drives and auditing them for installed software. Don’t forget to include backup or spare systems that may not be switched on all the time – they have to be audited too in case they contain risks from unpatched old software.

Depending upon the types of threats that an organisation might expect, it might be necessary to implement a networking monitoring system to check network traffic continuously for unusual activity. For example, if a little-used server suddenly receives many data transfer requests, this might be suspicious.  Some companies set up traps by loading a server with interesting – but fake – data with the aim of sidetracking hackers away from the real data they are after.

Vulnerability management should be high on the agenda of essential IT processes for most businesses. It is important, vital, for business management to understand it and how it can protect the company.