I saw a post on LinkTipIdea the other day about making strong and memorable passwords and it got me to thinking: There are tons of professionals today who have sensitive information stored on their computers and yet keep their passwords right out in the open (sometimes even using sticky notes attached to the computer itself!). This is a dangerous practice, as you never know who is going to be coming and going from your office.

It may seem like a pain to remember your password, especially if you have to use special characters (such as $, !, etc). However, there are ways around this problem (as read in the articles referenced above). One technique that I use is to replace common letters with special characters that I can easily remember. For example, replacing “S” with “$”. This makes your password not only easy to remember, but much more complex.

Remember: The possible consequences of having your password revealed far outweigh the effort required to keep your password secure.

At most jobs today, you’ll find yourself using a computer.  Regardless of whether it’s a laptop or a desktop, it is always a good idea to “lock” your computer when you are going to be away from it for an extended period of time.  What I mean by “lock” is to essentially require a user to enter your password to get to your desktop by placing the login screen on the monitor.  This can be done easily by holding down Ctrl -> Alt, pressing Delete and then selecting “Lock Computer”.  This will make sure that somebody has to login into your computer to be able to use it while you are away.  This is an important security measure as you never know who will be wandering around your office while you are away.