Living in today’s password driven world where we rely on passwords for online purchases, accessing our data, banking and even communicating with friends, it is crucial you have a strong password. You should be using multiple passwords. Having multiple passwords for all the places you use them makes it difficult for others to guess but can also make them difficult to remember. Follow our password guide and take control of your account safety with these helpful tips and tricks.
Common Password Mistakes:
Use Multiple Passwords
People tend to use an easy password like “lucky” at every password prompt. The problem with this is that if someone was to crack your “lucky” password just one time, they now have the ability to access all of your online accounts.
Change Them Regularly
The best way to avoid having your password discovered is to change it on a regular basis. A strong password is one that is changed often. Don’t share your password with others and don’t have them around for people to see. A password should be secret!
Avoid Common Passwords
If it can be found in the dictionary, then it is not a strong password. Numbers and letters in order such as “123” or “ABC” do not make for a strong password either. Names of pets, kids, sports teams should not be used as well as significant dates like anniversaries or birthdays. These are the things a hacker would check first.
Strong Password Solutions
How To Build A Strong Password
A strong password should contain a series of mixed letters and letters and should also include lower case and upper case as well as a symbol when that is allowed. You chosen characters should be totally random, and not have any alphabetical order or follow a keyboard layout. Spelling words backwards or substituting a number for similar looking letters can make it easier to remember while still maintaining great password strength. If you have a favourite saying or quote, you can also use the first letter of every word for a sequence that is easy for you to remember yet hard for others to crack.
If you can’t come up with a strong password yourself, there are plenty of tools that can make an unbreakable one for you. The Norton Security Password Generator, for example, can make one based on your specific criteria; how long you would like it to be, whether or not to include mixed case letters, numbers or punctuation and can even provide you with phonetic pronunciation that you can use to remember your password. For example:
BA2AmUm# would be BRUCE-ALPHA-two-ALPHA-mama-UNIFORM-mama-hash
If you are worried about the strength of your password, you can test it at the How Secure Is My Password website. This site is even able to tell you how long it would take the average PC to crack it.
Passwords are just one aspect of IT security. For a complete security solution, Blue Sky IT Consulting can assess your business and provide a solid security plan.