Lower Your Password Vulnerability with Four Powerful Tactics

Possibly the easiest and most important measure you can take is to use strong passwords. The best ones have at least 12 characters, cannot be found in a dictionary, and include numbers, lower-case, and capital letters. Alphanumeric passwords can take weeks to crack (compared to the mere seconds it takes to nail a password that can be found in the dictionary), and by mixing upper and lower case letters this decoding time can expand to a year or two. In other words, if your password is in the dictionary, don't use it!

You might not be as secure as you think. Some password-cracking tools work nearly a thousand times as quickly as they could ten years ago. Bill Gates recently admitted that password systems “simply won’t cut it” in the future. Luckily, there are some simple ways to protect yourself.

Obviously, a second form of authentication offers you one of the best ways to cover this vulnerability. Many banks offer additional security beyond the password. Use it whenever it’s available.

Another critical means of defense is to have different passwords for each system. This way, if someone hacks into your company email, for example, they won’t be able to access your online banking.

In addition to these measures, many browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari have built-in browser password managers. By storing your digital keys in a password vault, you add another layer of protection.

Electronic Help for Finding Laptops, Children, or Other Valuables

Loc8tor Ltd. (www.loc8tor.com) has released a device that uses radio frequency identification (RFID) to find lost objects within 500 feet. You attach a special tag onto the item you don’t want to lose, such as laptops, children, and pets, and when you need to go hunting for it the Loc8tor tells you when you’re getting “warmer” or “colder.” A higher-end version also alerts you when an item moves out of the 500-foot range.

In addition, special tags for higher-end version of the Loc8tor are meant to be worn by pets, children, or dependents. They come with a “panic button” so that the wearer (or someone who finds your pet) can call for help.

The Loc8tor can find up to 24 items, but unfortunately it only comes with 2-4 tags, depending on which version you buy. Additional tags cost $45 to $50 a pair, depending on whether you want the panic button.

This is a useful little device, and at $99.99 to $179.99 it’s affordable.

Our only concern is what to do if you misplace your Loc8tor!

Tracking the Changes in Your Documents

If you’ve ever dealt with more than one version of the same document, you might need to know exactly what was changed in the later edition. Comparing the documents line-by-line would be tedious, and you might overlook some of the changes.

Instead, use this handy feature in Word:

Start by opening the old version of the document. Then in the menu bar, select Tools, and from the menu that pops up, click on Compare and Merge Documents.

Select the document to compare with in the dialogue box. At the bottom of the dialogue box you’ll see two boxes for “Legal blackline” and “Find formatting.” Uncheck both of them and then click on the arrow next to the “merge” button. Select “Merge into new document” and save the document as something that will remind you of the comparison you are making (for example, “changes May 15 to June 3.doc”)

In the right margin of the document, you’ll see balloons showing deleted text. New text will be colored and underlined.

If there’s going to be a lot of deleted text, you can avoid an onslaught of balloons by choosing Options from the Tools menu. Select Track Changes, find the box called “Use Balloons” and select “Only for comments/formatting.” Any deleted text will simply appear crossed out in the text.

Of course, when you’re updating on an existing document, consider selecting the Track Changes option before you begin. This will automatically show you and other readers what text has been added and/or deleted.

Brent, How do I save an entire screen if I want to put it in a document or email it?

In Windows, if you press the Print Screen button, the entire screen goes to your clipboard. From there you can paste it into an email or a word document. Similarly, pressing Alt + Print Screen will capture only the currently selected window.

The only drawback is that you don’t always get everything on the screen. For example, if there’s a video on the screen you’ll probably just get a black box. But most screen elements look great.

For a more sophisticated tool, try SnagIt by TechSmith (www.snagit.com) . This software seems able to capture just about everything, and offers a lot of other useful features as well. For example, it can capture the entire web page instead of just what’s visible on the screen. You can set it to record a screen at regular time intervals, and automatically give each of these files a sequential name (such as dcgla01.doc, dcgla02.doc, dcgla03.doc, etc.).