123456789 / Password123   Just don't work!

123456789 / Password123 Just don't work!

World Password Day

Some of the biggest news stories lately have been about hackers. Many hacking attempts against major companies have led to serious data breaches. Millions of accounts and passwords were taken.

How can you protect yourself when these breaches occur?

One of the steps you can take to protect your accounts from hackers is to create a strong password. Strong passwords are harder to crack, and because of this, hackers will usually move on to the next password instead and your account may be safer. Here are a few tips on how to create a strong password that will be hard to crack.

First, make your passwords more complex. Don't just include letters in your passwords. Include symbols, numbers, and punctuation as well. Most of us are used to just using 40 or so keys on the keyboard; don't let yourself fall victim to this. Complex doesn't mean that you have to make something so difficult that you don’t actually remember it, but it does mean you need to have a variety of characters as your password.

Use More Than One Password

Design and implement three to four passwords at the very least. Your bank accounts and credit card accounts should have the most difficult passwords while accounts that aren’t going to reveal vital information can have simpler passwords. Hackers often hack into lower security websites, grab passwords, and use them to get into your other more important accounts. The best advice is to use a password management software that can generate and remember a different password for every site you use.

So, How Can You Create A Better Password?

First, Start with a sentence, such as "I believe in fairies." Second, remove any spaces in between your words. "Ibelieveinfairies." Third, misspell some words on purpose. "Ibelivinfaeries." Finally, if possible, add some numbers or other characters such as underscores or punctuation marks. You should end up with something like this:

"Ibelivinfaeries!982011."

Make sure the numbers are numbers you’ll remember at a later date. They should have some meaning to you.

While no method is guaranteed to keep you hack-proof, making your passwords stronger certainly helps. Additionally, some experts recommend changing your passwords every few months for added protection. If you’d like more information on keeping your networks and data safe, give our team a call. We’d love to help.