It wasn’t that long ago that a new study revealed what the most common passwords of 2014 were. Take the time to follow these seven steps for making your passwords less easy to breach. It will help keep your financial accounts, cards and email accounts more secure.
- Create “strong” passwords which contain numbers, upper- and lower-case letters, and symbols. For example, “2Cup!DD” is better than “2019”
- Use different passwords for shopping, work and personal email accounts, bank accounts and online retailers. If a hacker cracks one password, he won’t have access to others.
- Never use for a password the last four digits of your Social Security number, your maiden name, date of birth, middle name, child’s name, pet’s name or anything else easily discovered or guessed.
- Discourage your bank from using the last four digits of your SSN as a default PIN. If they do, change it.
- Change your passwords regularly.
- Memorize all your passwords or store them in a secure application or location, such as Password Safe or LastPass. Don’t record them in plain text on anything you carry with you—including your cell phone.
- Use passphrase and not password, such as “I like having a strong pass-phrase so no one can break it!!!”
- Use 2-Factor Authentication whenever possible. This makes it very hard to get into your account even if someone steals your password
Do not forget, every secret is as good as paper it is written on. Do not tape sticky notes with your secret password or pass-phrase on your monitor.
Tips for Creating Strong and Secure Passwords Video Tutorial.
Cybersecurity expert Ondrej Krehel – LIFARS CEO. knows a thing or two about staying secure online, and he has a few tips for users who want to keep cyber-attackers away from private accounts.
