Failing Memories, Stolen Secrets

Why you need to switch on your memory to keep your personal details secure

(PRWEB) June 5, 2005 -- How strong are your computer passwords? How safe are your data files, your emails, your internet banking details? How easy would it be for a thief to guess your new Chip and Pin number?

Unless you're extremely careful in your choice of passwords and PINs, and completely confident in your ability to remember them, you're laying yourself open to electronic attack.

The average computer user in the UK has to remember 21 different passwords, as well as PIN numbers, office door-codes, combination locks... But research suggests that hardly anyone actually trusts their memory to keep those passwords secure. In a 2002 NTA Monitor survey, nearly half of those questioned said they wrote down their passwords because they couldn't be sure of remembering them - even though 84% were choosing passwords that were supposedly easy to remember in the first place. Two thirds of people said they were so worried about forgetting their passwords that they never changed them.

By the end of August 2004, 47.9 million of the new Chip and Pin bank cards had been sent out, meaning that most of us will soon have yet another code to remember, and it needs to be unguessable if it's going to keep our money safe.

As more of our lives are filed away in computers, and as the hackers become ever more sophisticated, the need to trust our human memories increases by the day. Security experts recommend at least an eight digit password for every program or website, made up of random numbers and letters. But who could remember one of those, let alone twenty-one?
So instead of using our memories, far too many of us resort to using family names or dates - even then writing them down in case we forget them, leaving would-be hackers a variety of useful clues.

The ability to remember random, unguessable codes is vital to keeping all our money and personal details secure.

To meet this need, a new website has been created by one of the world's leading memory experts. For the first time ever, a complete guide to using your memory is available to download from memorypower.org. The approach is down-to-earth, practical and fun, but the results are significant: the ability to remember endless uncrackable security codes, plus the power to recall names, times, dates, lists, documents, presentations... the skills to write and speak memorably... the secrets of success in interviews and exams... and the best strategies to achieve true memory confidence, now and for the rest of your life.

Learn how to remember your past, manage your present and plan your future using both sides of your brain. Improve your efficiency at work, become more confident in social situations, and achieve more of your goals in life by learning how to unleash the power of your mind.

The author, memory champion and mind trainer Jonathan Hancock, believes everyone can learn to remember. 'For more than ten years I've been training people from four to eighty-four to start using their memories properly. I've not found anyone who didn't amaze themselves with what they could do.'

'Remembering random passwords and PINs is just the start of it. You develop incredible confidence that you can learn anything, and you start seeing opportunities for using your memory in everything you do.'

Memorypower.org is the result of Jonathan's personal adventures in memory. It includes his own system for memorizing playing cards which won him two Guinness world records, and a unique technique for remembering numbers that has been described as the most powerful ever devised. It explains how the brain works, and what you need to do to make it work for everything you need to know.

The security message is clear: invest in your memory to protect your details and your money with passwords that only you can remember. Memorypower.org shows you how, and lets you reap countless other benefits as you put your trained memory to work in every area of your life.

The author:
At the age of 16, Jonathan Hancock invented a system for memorizing playing-cards and broke the first of his two Guinness World Records. For three years running he was ranked as the best in the world at remembering names and faces. In 1994 he became the youngest ever World Memory Champion. He has used his memory skills to achieve a First from Oxford University, and to pursue a successful career as a broadcaster with the BBC.

Jonathan has written six books about memory and learning, including Maximise Your Memory (Reader's Digest) and Mindpower System (Hodder). A consultant to telecommunications and entertainment companies, he also runs memory training courses in business and education, and has appeared on radio and television around the world as an expert on memory improvement.

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