How to Create A Strong Password

Years ago when the Internet was still 'wet behind the ears', using a simple password seemed like a good idea.

Today things have changed and it is critical to update this policy for every individual. There are too many ways for bad people to figure out your password, to leave it as a simple work or word and number. 
Here is a great and quick primer video from Google to help understand how to create a great password.

ALWAYS make a unique strong password for your email so other people cannot verify your password changes.

Rules to Protect your Kids and Family (from Eset's Newsletter)

Here is a great general list of eight rules from eset.com - as part of their Cyber Security Awareness month. They have a tremendous news blog at eset.com discussing all kinds of recent Internet and personal privacy issues.
This list is important as a general rules list for families and individuals,  to help protect identity and online scams.

CyberTips: How to protect your kids onlineUse of social media in all age groups almost seems ubiquitous.  Advising children and teens in both the cyber world and the real world is  a difficult issue to navigate. Here are some tips you should consider to keep your children safer on social media sites (and some of them might help you as well): Let your kids know that you trust them, but that you (and they) can’t always trust others online. Be sure they understand that the reason Facebook is free is because Facebook sells their data to others. Remind them to review their Facebook and other social media accounts' privacy settings, at least monthly. Get a Facebook account yourself and ask your children to “friend” you. Get them to change the settings in their smartphone to remove location data from pictures. Be sure they know that pictures taken by friends and posted on social media are out of their control and can be embarrassing, if not worse. Encourage them to keep their whereabouts private (don’t “check in” to a location). Remind them that “online is forever.” What seems cool today can ruin a relationship or a job opportunity in the future.

The only addition that Menlo Technology encourages is to design two different identities for social websites. Each identity should have an incorrect spelling of a last name like Smiith or possibly SmithFB and completely different birthday and year of birth. To not forget these profile changes, using the same incorrect spelling and date of birth will make it easy to use on a regular basis. 
For more news of current topics and news about the Internet, check out our other blog as well at http://menlotechnical.wordpress.com

National Cyber Security Awareness Month

Not necessarily the most interesting topic, it is worth mentioning ~ this is
National Cyber Security Awareness Month

While many people are concerned about their family noticing what they write and do over the Internet, it is more important to figure out how to avoid hackers and unsavory characters from stealing your identity.
The StaySafeOnline.org website has offed up quick reference sheets to help explain what kids and parents can do to be safe while using the Internet.
Here are SOME of the quick links directly to their PDF files for the general public:
1) Online gaming tips for kids
2) Online gaming tips for parents
3) Internet safety and security for college students
4) Mobile safety tips
5) Social Media safety tips

Also posted on the Wordpress blog (Menlo Technical Blog I)