Recently, up to 145 million eBay users were affected by having their passwords accessed by attackers. Refer to the link below for the full story.

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/386139,attackers-access-ebay-customer-passwords-personal-data.aspx?eid=1&edate=20140522&utm_source=20140522_AM&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=daily_newsletter

This brings to light the importance of regularly changing your password AND using strong passwords. Some things to consider for passwords are:-

  • Change your passwords regularly( i.e. at least every three months)
  • Make sure you do not use the same or similar password for everything you use
  • Do not use ascending or descending numbers of letters of the alphabet (i.e. spaceABC or space123)
  • Do not use pet, spouse, children or favourite asset as a part of your password
  • Have a mixture of letters (both upper and lower case), numbers and special characters
  • Ensure that business email usernames are linked to business email accounts so that password resets are accessible by the company if staff member leaves.

Some companies like Microsoft get you to automatically change your password every 3 months for their software.  For those programs where you do not get a reminder perhaps consider setting a task to remind you to change your passwords in Salesforce or on your calendar every 3 months.