Passwords are Important

When it comes to protecting your data and information online, the first step is to make sure you’re using strong passwords. Because we are all human, we are terribly predictable. People typically select passwords that are easy to remember and come to mind quickly when making a new one. Easy to understand considering that, these days, we have so many passwords from work, school, social media, commerce and other platforms. There are many programs hackers can use to randomly guess hundreds of thousands of passwords in one go. The chances of a hacker guessing your password drastically increases when you use common words and numbers. Here is an infographic of the most commonly used passwords found in 10 million password leaks:

Do you use any of these words or numbers in your passwords? If you do, it’s time to change them.

Think you’re making your password stronger by adding a “1” at the end? According to this infographic, that’s the most common, and easy to guess choice. 

So what makes a strong password?

According to the United Kingdom’s National Cyber Security center, “Passwords generated from three random words help users to create unique passwords that are strong enough for many purposes, and can be remembered much more easily.”

However, it is possible that those three words can be guessed. To make a truly secure password, mental floss suggests:

1. Make your password long.
2. Make your password a nonsense phrase.
3. Include numbers, symbols, uppercase & letters
4. Avoid using personal information in your password
5. Don’t reuse passwords
6. Keep your passwords private
7. Change your passwords regularly

And, if you’re wondering how in the world you’ll manage to keep up with all of the crazy random strings of numbers, symbols and letters:

8. Start using a password manager.

Password managers are services that use a master password to encrypt your information. They don’t know the master password or store it so your information is safe. They can also help you to generate random strings of characters to use as passwords so that you don’t have to come up with them yourself.

There are lots of things you can do to protect yourself and your information online. If you have a strong password you’ll be off to a good start.