NBD News
October 25 2009
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"I want security, yeah"

Otis Redding wasn't singing about cyber safety, but we all want security when we use the web. So in this month's Explainer, I go over some important DOs and DON'Ts for a key component of your internet security: passwords. But first, my Featured Client for October is Simplified Living Solutions. In What's Next I look at OpenID, and in News and Notes I reveal a non-pumpkin-related reason to celebrate in October.

Featured Client: Simplified Living Solutions

My featured client for October is Simplified Living Solutions , a professional organizing company based in St. Louis, Missouri. Owner Sue Anderson hired me a couple of years ago to develop a logo for her business. At that time, she had a website which she wasn't 100% happy with, but which was serving her needs. In 2008, she felt it was time to upgrade, and after refreshing the color scheme of her logo, I designed and developed her new site. The challenge for me was accommodating the quantity of information Sue was eager to provide to website visitors, while still expressing the sense of "peace, simplicity, and order" that Sue brings to her clients' homes.

Explainer: Strong Passwords

So many websites these days, from banks to email providers to mom-and-pop e-commerce shops, require you to create a username and password. To help you stay secure online, here are some guidelines for using passwords (be sure read my blog post on generating strong and memorable passwords):

  • Don't use the same password for everything. Most importantly, use a unique password for each site which stores sensitive information about you, such as a bank, credit card, or health insurance websites
  • Don't base your password on birthdates, social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, the names of your children or pets, other information which can be easily guessed or discovered, or real words
  • It's okay to write down passwords and store them at home, but don't carry them with you, leave them in a file on your computer, or post them on a sticky not on your monitor
  • Do make your password at least 8 characters long - the longer the better
  • Do mix in upper and lowercase characters, numbers, and even punctuation if allowed
  • Do change your passwords on a regular basis
  • When entering a password on a bank, credit card, or other sensitive site, do look for the "https://" and tiny lock symbol that will appear in your browser, indicating you are using a secure website

For more online security tips, check out How to stay secure online.

What's Next: OpenID

OpenID is an open standard which allows you to unify multiple logins under a single username and password -- your OpenID account. There are many OpenID providers, and it's likely that you're already using one or more of them. If you have a Yahoo!, Google, or ebay account for example, you can log into any OpenID-enabled site using that existing account (view other OpenID options ). OpenID is not necessarily more secure than maintaining strong, unique passwords to every site you log into, but it is certainly more convenient. The current disadvantage is that not every site supports it, especially e-commerce sites, but hopefully the technology will see wider adoption in the near future.

For more information, check out Open ID Explained or OpenID's website.

News and Notes: NCSAM

Okay, so maybe "celebrate" isn't the right word. Though I wasn't aware of it when I thought up the topic for this month's newsletter, it turns out that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM)! Try to contain your excitement. Halloween may have candy and costumes, but NCSAM gives you a good opportunity to review your passwords, update or change the ones that fall short, and make sure you have a system in place for generating and remembering strong passwords.