Gmail Blog Highlights Passwords
As part of National Cyber Security Awareness Month (see Gmail's post for a link) Gmail is reminding people to use passwords wisely and has some great tips.
I am somewhat of a security freak (as those who know me will attest to) and I heartily recommend reading Google's post. Here are some bad password practices Gmail's Michael Santerre, Consumer Operations Associate points out that his original post lists solutions to:
- Re-using passwords is a bad practice (using the same password for more than one website)
- Using dictionary words, common passwords, and letters in sequence on the keyboard (like "pass", "password", "logmein", "start", and "zxcvb")
- Using passwords based on personal data (like spouse's name or birthdate)
- Storing your password in an unsecure place (like a sticky note on your monitor)
- Poor Password Recovery (hard passwords may be forgotten/lost, how will you find them if this happens?)
While the information and explicit warning is Good(TM)
NOT Telling us HOWTO change the Gmail password is high-oversight.
To change your password...starting from Gmail (logged in)
1) Go to Google.com and search "change gmail password" (top result is http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=6567)
2) Or do this: Upper left click "Web" (its to the right of "Reader") a new window opens on Google search with you logged in, now click "Settings" at upper right, the "Google Account Settings" from the dropdown menu. On the Google Accounts page click "Change Password" and fill in the Change Password page and click the "Save" button. There's a handy Password Strength indicator.
Happy password-changing!