Recently, a couple of the other psych med w/d support sites have had some mild security problems. One person has managed to access a handful of personal accounts, probably by using software that can “crack” or guess a password.
IAWP has had no security problems.
But, in the “eternal vigilance in the price of liberty” vein, we are requesting that IAWP members make their passwords more complex. This is an easy way to significantly increase your own security, as well as the security of the site as a whole.
I am including below some excellent suggestions from Colin, the founder of benzobuddies.org, on how to make your password virtually impossible to “crack.” Also, if you have set your email address to public in your profile, please consider making it private.
If you have any further questions, please post them in the “Technical glitches” thread.
“The whole point…is to prevent someone from using a 'dictionary attack', where rapid automated guessing of your password takes place. So long as you use a longish password (I suggest nine characters or more), and the password consists of a random string of characters (a mixture of numerals, upper and lower case letters, and special characters), there is no way a dictionary attack could work in your lifetime. You should never use regular words or guessable passwords (names, places, etc.)….” [thanks to Colin, Founder, benzobuddies.org]
