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Although Wise Owl Legal takes a number of precautions
Details about how to make a password which will be allowed by Wise Owl and not easily guessed by an attacker.
Hard to guess, easy to remember.
Password Managers
Diceware
Steps to Make A Passwordprecautions to keep your data secure, in the end, your password is the most important factor in keeping unauthorised people out of your Appliance. A well chosen password will keep even the most determined hacker from accessing your Appliance, while a poorly chosen one can give access to a competitor, a disgruntled employee, or even a teenage kid with too much time on their hands.
What Makes a Good Password
Three things:
- Hard for someone else to guess.
- Easy for you to remember.
- Not reused on some other website.
The point of a password is so other people can't guess it. It needs to be secret and difficult to guess. If you tell your password to someone else, or if its so easy to guess your colleague, client or grandmother can guess it, you might as well not have one!
Of course, if your password is so hard to guess that even you can't remember it, well, that's pointless. And, generally, hard to guess passwords tend to be hard to remember. And because we can only remember perhaps 4 or 5 passwords before we get afraid we might forget something really important (like our address or partner's birthday), we tend to reuse passwords
So there's a compromise you have to make between something really easy like 123456
or password
, and 3497zVp63v4IC
(although, as I'll show in a moment, that's not entirely true).
Step By Step Guides
Here are some step-by-step guides to making a strong password. In recommended order.
Password Managers
The best, and simplest way to make an impossible password is have the computer generate one for you, and the computer remember it for you.
- Generate a new, totally random, unique password like
3497zVp63v4IC
- Store it securely in the password manager.
- When you log into Wise Owl Legal, the password manager will
In a sense, we are "cheating" when remembering the password. But computers remember things really well, so why not get them to do it for you.
There are a variety of high quality password managers available. Some are free, others cost money. Some work just on Windows, others can sync with your smart phone. Some look really pretty, others look like they were made by computer programmer. Choose one and use it. For every website you use.
Here are a list of common password managers:
And a review of password managers (particularly focused on OnePass).
Other alternatives include using your web browser to remember your password or even good old fashioned pen and paper.
All web browsers supported by Wise Owl Legal have an option to remember your password. Although this isn't as secure as a dedicated password manager, it means you can choose a longer, more complicated password and just let the browser remember it for you.
Pen and paper is a surprisingly good option, as long as you store the paper securely. A small pocket notepad or several pages in the back of your diary could work well.
The down side of both the browser and paper options is you still need to make your password. We recommend getting a computer to generate it totally at random (simply search for generate password in your favourite search engine and you'll find plenty of options available).
Your Default Wise Owl Legal Password
The password or passphrase generated by Wise Owl Legal for you is actually above the average password quality. As a computer has generated it under controlled conditions, we can actually guarantee it's hard to guess (because it contains no personal information and is totally random). If you don't like it, you can change your password and let the system generate a different one.
If you keep using that password and keep the page with your original login details in a secure location (eg: your wallet or with documents like your passport) and don't tape it to your computer screen, you'll be fine.
Diceware
Make Your Own
If your password contains any personal information, you're asking for trouble. Hackers commonly use this information to figure out a user's password, sometimes on the first attempt!
The following list should be
- Any information about yourself such as:
- Your name.
- Your family member's names.
- Your birthday (or family's birthdays).
- Your favourite colour, pet, food, word.
- Your login name.
- Anything to do with Wise Owl Legal.
- Any information
Be Afraid of Hackers