Another large website was hacked today and email addresses and passwords of over a million people were stolen from the Ubuntu community forum.  This follows a string of break-ins including Gawker, Yahoo, Twitter, Spotify, government websites, schools and many lesser known sites.  There are over 50 million known stolen credentials.

It is important to re-evaluate your password management.

• Never use the same password on two different sites.
• Do not use any word likely to be in a dictionary by itself.
• Use a combination of letters, numbers and symbols.
• Length is key to making it hard to crack your password.  Make it no less than 8 characters.
• Consider using a pass phrase instead of a traditional password.
• Use a password manager such as KeePass or Lastpass.
• Check to see if your email address has been found in a hack.

These are some general guidelines and suggestions.  Be safe out there.

More information

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/8-character-passwords-just-got-lot-easier-crack-1C7530242

http://www.fourmilab.ch/javascrypt/pass_phrase.html

http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/ten-windows-password-myths