A couple of weeks ago, Twitter issued a recommendation that its 336 million (yes) users change their passwords. 

The recommendation was, of course, issued via tweet. “We recently found a bug that stored passwords unmasked in an internal log. We fixed the bug and have no indication of a breach or misuse by anyone. As a precaution, consider changing your password on all services where you’ve used this password.”

I wonder how many Twitter users caught this recommendation … and how many acted on it. That got me to thinking about passwords in general.

Shifting from passwords to pass phrases

Think for a minute of how many times a day you enter a password, whether to unlock your smartphone, log on to your computer, access your voicemail, or simply enter a secured office area.

I’ve presented on cybersecurity twice in the last year, for EPAA and for Executive Secretary LIVE, and will speak again on the topic this October, when I’ll be presenting to executive assistants at the APC (Administrative Professionals Conference) in Kissimmee, Florida.

There are a number of  practices you can put in place to protect digital security. Thoughtful development of passwords is among them. Regularly changing passwords is another. If you really want to make it difficult for others to lift your password, you can switch from using passwords to pass phrases.

This leads to the topic of my latest weekend poll …

How seriously do you take your password security?

Please take a couple of minutes to complete the poll below. As always, I look forward to hearing what you have to say and will publish results early next week.

“Select” whichever responses apply, and remember to CLICK on the “VOTE” ICON AFTER EACH QUESTION.