Many aspects of E-Spring Cleaning make your life more convenient, make your computer run more smoothly, or make the outside of your computer more shiny–like the new toy it once was.  However, password maintenance is also a key component of E-Spring Cleaning, and with a recent security problem affecting most of the world wide web, now is absolutely the time to make sure your passwords are in order!

You may have heard about “Heartbleed,” a security vulnerability uncovered just this week that affects the majority of websites. TIME magazine has a helpful article on the scope of the problem and How to Protect Yourself Against the Heartbleed Bug. For a rather technical description, check out this Q. & A. and accompanying video from the New York Times Bits blog. Now that most websites have protected themselves, it is time for us users to start protecting ourselves.

What this means for you is that you absolutely need to change your passwords. ASAP. Start with the big ones, Yahoo, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Dropbox, Google and Gmail. These websites are known to have been compromised. For more on specific sites see Mashable’s “The Heartbleed Hit List: The Passwords You Need to Change Right Now.”

The procedure for changing passwords is a little bit different for each website. If you are having trouble try Googling: “How do I change my Yahoo password?” or “How do I change my Amazon password?” You should be able to get some helpful advice. Follow this link to learn “How to Choose a Good Password.” I have already helped one client update passwords, and I would be happy to set up an E-Spring Cleaning appointment to make sure all of your passwords are in order.

As you start changing your passwords you will most likely get overwhelmed by trying to remember all the new ones.  For beginning users I strongly recommend getting a low-tech paper password organizer, such as The Personal Internet Address & Password Logbook from Peter Pauper Press or Password Pal. These notebooks are like address books, organized A-Z to help you keep track of the many websites you use.  As you change your password for each website, note the email address or username you used to login and then write down your new password and any additional security information.

The paper and pencil system is far from perfect, since anyone who gets their hands on your password organizer can get access to your various accounts on the web, but it is safe from hackers.  Keep your new notebook in a safe place where you can find it but far away from prying eyes.

Alternately you can use a password management service like Last Passor 1Password. I do not recommend these to beginning users as they require being quite comfortable with computer use in general, but both services are very secure. They organize passwords for all of your websites, and they also protect them. As you change all of your passwords in the wake of Heartbleed, you can enter them into the system you choose one by one. I would be delighted to help get this sort of system set up for you. Both work on Mac and PC as well as on mobile devices like iPhone, iPad and Android.

Once again, I am happy to come to you for a discounted two-hour E-Spring Cleaning session where we can work on updating and organizing your passwords. I hope this post was helpful for understanding the scope of the threat and what you need to do to protect yourself from it.