OK, I realize it’s not as much fun as Talk Like a Pirate Day, but this is National Identity Fraud Prevention Week, at least in the UK. And there are some pretty scary stats (from a survey by McAfee) in this article, including:
- 43% of respondents never change their password
- 24% use the same password to access all online accounts
- 59% ‘always’ or ‘mostly’ use the same password for everything
- 30% of respondents surveyed use passwords of only one-to-six characters in length
- 22% use only alpha characters
While I don’t believe everything I read on the internet, and I do understand that surveying a few thousand McAfee users isn’t the most representative group, the numbers are still pretty alarming.
Strong passwords, changed frequently, aren’t that hard to use. They’re hard to remember, but tools like eWallet mean that you don’t have to. eWallet – and other password managers – will safely store, and even generate, all your passwords.
Whether you use eWallet or not (and of course I hope you do), you should use good security – both online and off. Identity theft and other fraud is becoming more and more common, and it’s a real problem. Using good passwords, and shredding your paper info are two of the easiest and most effective way to protect yourself.
If you’re using passwords that are easy to crack, or haven’t changed them in a while, or use the same one too many places, change them now. Don’t put it off.
And to encourage and help everyone to use strong passwords, we’re giving half off eWallet (Professional Edition) until Monday, October 15. Use the following links to purchase eWallet at this special price for your: Pocket PC, Windows Mobile Smartphone, or Palm OS handheld. Remember, these come with the Windows PC version as well, so start protecting yourself now!
You can all be my guinea pigs! I don’t know if you remember (and 10 points to anyone who does) but several months ago, I added a handy little script to the home page of our site that would automatically redirect users to the mobile version if they were browsing on a mobile device. We tested it a lot, but I also wrote a post about it right here on the blog, to ask you guys for help to make sure you didn’t find any problems. Everything seemed to be going great, until Ellen found an issue no one else noticed, so I had to go back to the drawing board.
ListPro 5.0 is officially out and so far the response is great. We’re really glad that so many of you like it. One tricky aspect of ListPro, however, is that the flexibility that makes it so popular, also allows each person to use the software in a completely different way. As a result, the feature request lists for ListPro are longer and more varied than for any other product we’ve ever released. Each person wants different features based on the way they use the software.
One of the most fun parts of my job is wandering into the bookstores every week or so, and finding that one of our products has been written up or mentioned in “real” magazine.