So here’s a little Security round-up including existing posts and some new additions.
1. Everyone uses passwords. Some people have good passwords, others don’t. Test the strength of your password at Microsoft’s password checker. Try to make your passwords hard to guess by using both uppercase and lowercase letters. Also, use numbers and even swap in some numbers for letters:
a => 4
e => 3
i => 1
o => 0
s => 5
t => 7
2. Use the free open-source encryption tool TrueCrypt to create encrypted volumes to store sensitive data (e.g. financial documents, password files, etc.). Check out an easy way to mount and open these volumes in a previous post of mine.
3. For simple text (.txt) files, you can lock them using Stegnos LockNote. Just drag the text file over LockNote and it will prompt you for a password. This text file now needs a password to be entered when you open it.
4. Need to use your home computer away from home? Use VNC over a secure tunnel to get in securely over the Internet. Check out my previous post on creating an SSH tunnel for VNC.
5. Finally, all of those passwords you have can get hard to keep track of. You can use KeePass or Password Corral to keep track of your passwords. This comes in handy if you have many different unique passwords for your accounts.