Password Security Best Practices

• Do not use words in any language for passwords
• Do not use numbers or symbols for letters in passwords, as programs can easily guess these
• Do not use the same password for more than one system
• The most secure passwords are 16 characters or more and use letters, numbers, and symbols
• A blank Windows password might be more secure than an easy-to-guess password such as "1234," because you cannot authenticate to a Windows computer from a remote computer unless the user account has a password
• A criminal might be able to guess an easy password and authenticate remotely
• If a computer is always in a protected room such as a home office and the user doesn't intend to access it remotely, she might choose not to use a password
• If the user travels with a laptop, always create a strong password
• It's not recommended writing passwords down, but if you do, keep them in a safe place as you would the data you are protecting
• Do not send passwords over email or chat
• Change passwords regularly, and don't type them on a public computer
• Computers in hotel lobbies or Internet cafés should only be used for web browsing, not for signing in to your email account or online banking account, because these computers might be running keystroke-logging software
• Rather than writing down passwords, consider storing passwords with a password manager app such as Dashlane, Sticky Password, or LastPass
• These apps can keep your passwords in the cloud or on your own device, and the passwords they create are longer and stronger than those you would be able to memorize

Local Group Policy and Local Security Policy Editors

• Three tools control what users and computers can do with a system or network
• Group Policy works in Active Directory on a Windows domain to control the privileges of computers and users on the domain
• Local Group Policy (gpedit.msc) contains a subset of policies in Group Policy; this subset applies only to the local computer or local user
• Local Security Policy (secpol.msc) contains a subset of policies in Local Group Policy, which apply only to the local computer's Windows security settings
• Local Security Policy is an Administrative Tools snap-in in Control Panel
• The Local Group Policy and Local Security Policy editors are available with business and professional editions of Windows
• The Local Group Policy editor contains two major categories of policies: Computer Configuration and User Configuration
• When you are working with the computer configuration in the Windows security settings group of the Local Group Policy editor, you are working with the same group of policies you can edit when using the Local Security Policy editor