But even worse, courts are now recognizing that there is no expectation of privacy when you post anything person to your Facebook page.  The Law Journal recently reported:

Three courts in Pennsylvania have now decided that, if a party in a civil case posts information on his or her Facebook page that appears to contradict statements in discovery or testimony, then the party’s Facebook page falls within the scope of discovery. In the most recent case, Largent v. Reed, a judge ordered a plaintiff in an auto accident case to turn over her Facebook username and password to the defendant, on the ground that her postings brought up questions about the extent of her injuries.

Post at your own risk.

1. 123456
2. 12345
3. 123456789
4. Password
5. iloveyou
6. princess
7. rockyou
8. 1234567
9. 12345678
10. abc123
11. Nicole
12. Daniel
13. babygirl
14. monkey
15. Jessica
16. Lovely
17. michael
18. Ashley
19. 654321
20. Qwerty

Using a common password opens you up to a “Rainbow List” attack.  A rainbow list is nothing more than a brute force way of using thousands of common passwords tries to break yours.  82% of passwords are found on rainbow lists.  Don’t be common or predictable. Use a combination of character types: upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and special characters.

Analysis of stolen password files (i.e. the ones recently posted from Sony or Gawker) show some interesting trends.  93% of all passwords are between 6 and 10 characters long. Only 4% of passwords use three or more character types and only 1% use special characters.

If you use the same password for all of your sites, you risk one site being compromised and your password being used on your bank account, for instance. Only about 8% of passwords found across stolen sites were unique, so 92% of people used the same password repeatedly.

Your best bet is to use a password manager…and not the one in your browser, which is not secure.  Services such as keepass, lastpass and 1Password can help generate strong, random passwords and then manage their use. Some are free and some have interfaces with smartphones.

Should you have any further questions, please contact us.