Adodo’s Guide to Keeping Your Password Safe

Yahoo, Twitter and LinkedIn are amongst the online organisations that are encouraging their users to reset passwords in the wake of the recent hacker attack to Gawker.com.  With that in mind here are some top tips on resetting your password.

1. Never use the same password across lots of different websites.
2. Do not use a word that you – or a hacker – could find in the dictionary: these are susceptible to so-called ‘brute force’ attacks.
3. Try to include some digits and special characters to add a layer of complexity that will make life difficult for a criminal.
4. Pick a phrase or mnemonic that helps you to remember your password.
5. You can avoid having to remember passwords altogether by using a password manager program.  

A Nation of ‘online-a-holics’

72% of adults update their social networking profiles from under the duvet according to a survey conducted by Travelodge.  On average, we tend to spend an average of 16minutes per night checking Facebook, Twitter and other social sites.  The peak time for all this bed-based social networking was found to be 9.45am. 

The survey also suggested that Britons also spend an average of nine minutes per night sending text messages to friends and family.  You are in the majority if you check your mobile phone for texts or emails, before anything else on waking up in the morning. 

"We have become a nation of 'online-a-holics'," said psychologist Corinne Sweet. “But there is a time and a place for social networking, and that’s not between the sheets, as it can be detrimental to our wellbeing.  “By texting, tweeting and surfing the web in bed, we are nodding off with a busy mind which impacts upon our quality of sleep during the night.”

The results of this study came in last week, alongside the news that The Prime Minister was joining forces with Boris Johnson in a personal plea to Twitter to base its European HQ in London.