Knowing how to better secure you password is very important in this age of obsessed online presence. If someone can access your passwords, what do you tend to lose? You’re only as secure as your weakest point. It can take a hacker just 1 minute to guess your password with a computer.
Here are tips on how to keep and create stronger but easy to remember passwords; and where you can check if your password is strong and how long it will take for a machine to guess it.
joey1976 was my password for many years and I have been using it for online transactions like email, payment, social media and access to services… but then, it took a hacker just a minute to guess my password and BANG! I was locked out of all online platforms.
Watch this video to checkout a site where you can validate your current password
Imagine someone gained access to your email, reading your personal or business emails might not be that very serious, but that email account is the recovery mechanism for your other online accounts. basically, losing that email to someone else is like giving them your master key.
These few tips will go a long way to make your password more secured.
- SAME PASSWORD
Don’t use same password across multiple sites or accounts. e.g. using same password to log into your computer, your email account, social media platforms, etc. Use a different password for every account that you have. This might be difficult to cope with, but it will definitely come in handy if one of your accounts get compromised. Multiple passwords will ensure that your other accounts remain safe. - IDENTIFIABLE INFO
Don’t use your real name, birth date, phone number or easily identifiable information like your child’s name, someone close to you can easily figure out this within a short time. - KEYBOARD COMBO
Using Keyboard combination like ABCD, 1234, QWERTY is not ideal. Analysts found that of list of 38 million passwords, that keyboard combo were the most common. These are generic in the sense that the format can be guessed in no time with a computer. - STORE ON YOUR COMPUTER
I will also advice that you don’t store your password in your computer as a text, someone can accidentally dabble into it and that means you are at the mercy of the “beholder”. - LESS THAN 8CHARACTERS
Password with less than 8 characters is not recommended. It will take a hacker to guess that password in less than a second with a high speed computer. - WORD WITH A SENTENCE
Creating a “word” with a “sentence” like “ILoveMySpouceSoMuch” will be ideal for you to use as a password and also it will be easy for you to remember but difficult for a machine to guess or hack. - SPECIAL CHARACTERS
Add special characters like “#@!* to your password will be very effective in making your password stronger.
Applying some of this tips might be a life saver. Be sure to share this post with friends and family to keep their online data safe too.