During this St. Patrick's Day NCF #CyberChats session - we focused on protecting your "pot-o'-gold" or other items of value. The reality is that we do not always do the best job of protecting our private information or even our passwords.

This Chat was interactive and allowed participants to come up with possible passwords for a make-believe person, based on information provided. Participants were able to see how easy it is to guess someone's password if it is weak.

We used a website to demonstrate how easy it is for a computer to figure out a password, and we discussed how hackers mostly use 'rainbow' tables to guess passwords. We demonstrated how to create good passwords and how to protect them.

View a recording of this session via the NCF #CyberChats YouTube Playlist. You can also view this session via Nepris.com.

Learn about more NCF #CyberChats.

Key Questions

* What makes a bad password?
* What makes a good password?
* What is good password 'hygiene'?
* How does a hacker break into an online account?

Expected Outcomes

Students will learn information about guarding their passwords online and the following facts:

1. Many passwords that people think are good are actually bad passwords that are easily guessable by a person or easily 'crackable' by a computer.

2. Hackers can use information they know about you to guess your password or they can use computer programs along with 'rainbow' tables.