Your accounts are meant to be secure, but nobody can be sure, and without a safe way of keeping passwords to them stored, they can be easily stolen by any human or robot.
That’s why the Niagara-on-the-Lake Public Library hosted a Tech Connect workshop at the St. Davids firehall on Tuesday.
Amy Green, the library's digital literacy associate, taught attendees how to make a strong and secure password and why it’s important to keep them safe.
Green has been running these workshops for a year and a half, and said she loves helping out people who need tech support and might have more questions.
The workshop began with a lesson on how to make a strong password, and gave examples of different websites you can use to make your password in a way that a hacker might not think of.
One of the most important things that she discussed in the workshop was “finding a password that’s not going to be in the dictionary,” so that somebody sitting at a computer wouldn’t be able to guess random words and find your password that you thought was secure.
However, the reality is those guessers aren’t always going to be human.
“What you will find these days is that it’s not a person sitting at their computer trying to guess your password, it will be bots,” Green said.
These bots are faster than humans, and have ways of getting around the passwords you thought were most secure, such as your pet's name, granddaughter's birthday, or any other secure personal information you didn’t think anyone would be able to guess.
Important to know is what variations of passwords you can make, and also where to keep them.
Green also runs one-on-one workshops that you can book with her privately for all of your tech questions.
One-on-one time has helped many people who don’t want to talk about their passwords or other concerns in front of large groups of people, she explained.
People come in for a workshop and then say they didn’t realize they could do a one-on-one. They come in with really specific questions, Green said, “if it doesn’t go into enough detail on something or it’s not going into the specificities, then that one-on-one is perfect.”
If you missed this workshop and want to know more about how to keep your passwords safe, the library will be running the same workshop hosted by Green on May 13, and registration opens on March 7.
“If you’ve got friends you think it might be useful for, encourage them to sign up!” she said.
Stay tuned for more to come, such as the online safety workshop on June 10, and another exciting one in the spring to learn about AI.
To book with Green, you can email her at [email protected] and schedule an appointment, or find out more information on the events calendar on the NOTL Library website.
Elizabeth Mason is a Niagara resident in her third year of the Carleton University four-year journalism program. She is doing a two-week placement with The NOTL Local before returning to Ottawa.