Passwords
log out, Login, logout, Password, Security, User
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Passwords are very important to user accounts, but there may come a time when you need to change your password or maybe you forgot your password. We’re here to help.
Change Your Password
If you know your current password and would like to change it to something different follow these steps:
1) Visit your Personal Settings.
2) Scroll to the bottom of the page to the New Password area.
3) Type your new password into both boxes and click the Update Profile button when you are done.
4) Your password has been updated!
Lost Password
It is very important to keep your passwords secure and to remember them, but there might come a time when you forget a password. Follow these easy steps to get a new password.
1) Visit the Lost Password page.
2) Type your WordPress.com username or e-mail into the text box and click the Get New Password button. A page will load with a message to Check your e-mail for the confirmation link.
3) Check your email and you should receive a message similar to the one below.
4) Click on the link in the email. A new page will load in your web browser with a message to Enter your new password.
5) Your password will be reset and the WordPress.com login page will load. Type in your username and paste the new password. You should be logged into WordPress.com.
6) Enjoy your WordPress.com account again!
Security
The weakest link in the security of anything you do online is your password. It’s the key to your blog, your email, your social networking accounts or any other online service you use. If your password is easy to guess, your online identity is vulnerable.
All it takes is one person to guess your password and they can delete every post you ever made. They could deface your site. They could read your emails or hijack your address and impersonate you. They could ruin what you have taken time to build.
Logging Out
You can protect your account by logging out when you are finished working. To log out of your WordPress.com account, hover over your account name on the gray toolbar at the top right of any WordPress.com page and click on Sign Out. This is a particularly important precaution when you are working on a shared or public computer. If you don’t log out, someone may be able to access your account just by viewing the browser history and accessing the WordPress.com pages. Make sure to log out when you are done editing!
Choosing and using good passwords
Every password you use has to be easy to remember and hard to guess. A random set of numbers and characters make for a hard-to-guess password, but they’re also hard to remember. On the other hand, you’ll probably never forget your birthdate or the name of your first pet, but these make for very bad passwords, as they are increasingly easy to guess or research.
On WordPress.com, you can use very long password with any combination of letters, numbers, and special characters, so the security of your password – and by extension, of your blog – is really up to you.
To choose a memorable password that will be hard to guess, come up with a word or two that are not in any dictionary, yet are easy to pronounce. It’s easier to remember a pronounceable word then a string of random characters. Then, mix in some numbers, capital letters, or special characters.
You can also use passphrases – whole sentences, such as quotes or favorite song lyrics. Passphrases are harder to guess yet easier to remember. They take longer to type, but are considered more secure, especially if you pepper them with some random numbers and special characters.
However, even if you manage to think of a good password, it will only be as secure as the number of sites you use it on. If you always use the same password on every site you sign up for, the chances of your password getting compromised are greatly increased.
Instead of trying to keep track of dozens of passwords in your head or in unsecured text documents on your desktop, use password management software. They will lock all your information down behind one single password. If you only have to remember one password, you can make it as random and as hard to guess as you want.
These are some password managers we use ourselves:
- Keepass – Open Source, free to download and use. Available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
- LastPass – Free service with premium option. Available for all major OSs, browsers and mobile devices.
- 1Password – Paid download. Available for Windows, Mac and iOS, with support for all major browsers.
Your data – your responsibility.
Last modified: March 1, 2012
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