Why do people tend to ignore security when it comes to using technology?

Why is it that most people, when they leave home, lock the doors to their home, apartment, quonset hut or what have you?  It’s because not that someone is going to attempt to break in the moment they leave, but it’s the smart thing to do to discourage those that MAY look to take advantage of the situation and ransack an open home.

Well, your computer is no different.  Think about it; We store everything on our computers. From our personal information, to precious photographs, memories, music, documents and more.  Everything most of us care about is stored on that single device so why wouldn’t you want to protect it (and your data)?

Now, there are two things here that I need to mention.  1) is actual security of your device and 2) is the security of your Data.  This post is more about securing your device, I’ll have a separate post on securing your data (think Backups).

There are a number of simple things you can do to keep your devices safe.  First and foremost, make sure you set a password.  And by password, I’m not talking about things like:

Your name
Your spouses name
Your pet’s name
Your kids names
Your birthday
Your anniversary

And on and on that list goes, I’m sure you get the idea.

If you’re going to use one of these key type facts about you, it would be no different than having a combination lock with a combination of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.  You may as well just post a sign saying “HEY!  COME TAKE MY STUFF!”

Okay, now that I got that out… How DO you come up with a meaningful and complex password that you can remember but won’t be like solving the equation for folding space and time?  The easiest thing?  Come up with a pass phrase!  Yes, a phrase!  Something made up of two to five words that has no relation to anything in particular, but you’ll be able to easily remember or given a hint can remember.  You want an example?

How about:

Dogs love gardening 2000
Or
Racoons flying backwards 01

Or any other nonsensical phrase that someone isn’t going to easily guess, because it doesn’t make sense in a normal conversation, but you can easily remember because it’s only a few words and a number.  See how much easier that is?  Much easier than say ‘H*23hSJH39481)(*!@’

Another thing…  Do yourself a favor and DON’T use the same password on more than one web site at a time!  I know, I know, it’s so much easier if you use the one password everywhere, that way you only need to remember one password, but you know what?  When you get hacked (not IF, because it WILL happen at some point), that means the hacker will have access to EVERY place you do as well because you, you guessed it, used the same password everywhere!

Well, Grumpy Sysadmin, how am I possibly going to remember all of those different passwords on all those different web sites and places online that I go too?  I mean, if they’re all complex, how is it better that I have them written down on a piece of paper that I can either loose or someone else can steal from me, and then have access to all my sites?

Well, I’m glad you asked!  You want the easy solution?  Use a Password Manager!

Yup, a password manager!  Password managers keep track of all of your different passwords used in all the different sites you go online, can fill in information such as credit cards, passwords, or other secrets, and it keeps them all safe with one simple “Master” password!  It’s that one Master password you really must remember, or write down and stick in a safe or safe deposit box somewhere so you don’t loose it!  Password Managers are great security tools in that they can create very complex and difficult to remember passwords for you, save them all individually so you don’t have to remember every single one yourself, share secret information securely with others, and more!

If you’re worrying about the cost of such a tool, well, not only is it very affordable, but most password managers out there have free options (albeit limited) that do this for you and there’s even one full featured tool that’s absolutely free for all of it’s options!

Want to know more about some of the top password managers for 2024?  Check out my video review of some of the top password managers for 2024 here:

Now passwords aren’t the only way to protect yourselves, but they’re the most common and have been around for the longest period of time.  But there are OTHER ways of protecting yourself and your accounts.  One of those is something called Two or Multi Factor Authentication.  This is more of a topic for a different post, but I’ll just say it’s a very common security technique implemented in most services today, and I highly recommend you use it if it’s available on anything or any service you use!  The momentary inconvenience is well worth not getting hacked or having to try and get your identity back after it’s stolen!

Want to know more about Multi or Two factor authentication?  Check out either my blog post on it at:
https://thegrumpysysadmin.com/please-start-using-multi-factor-or-2-factor-authentication/

Or my YouTube video on multi-factor authentication:

Remember, as much as we hate having to maintain security, it’s becoming more and more important in this ever growing Internet of Things World we’ve become!

• The Grumpy Sysadmin