A password is a critical barrier that protects our digital identities, allowing us to access social media, dating, online shopping, banking, and other digital entities. Unfortunately, people ignore the fact that a password can easily be guessed, hacked, or acquired by un-wanting personnel on the internet, leaving our private information exposed to the world.
Thus it is very important to put the mind into creating a strong password, ensuring that it stays well protected from prying eyes. Here are some of the best practices for creating a strong password.
How to Choose a Strong Password – Best Practices
By keeping these pointers in mind, we can easily protect our digital identities. If you’re an application developer, it is up to you to educate your clients and show them how they can be protected on the internet.
- Use at least 8-12 characters
- Make use of a combination of letters both upper and lowercase, symbols, and numbers to create a password.
- Make your passwords very unique, don’t use words from the dictionary.
- Have multiple passwords for multiple purposes, for example, have a separate password for your email, business email, and other accounts because if a hacker gets hold of one of the accounts, they will attempt to unlock your other accounts using the same password. And as it turns out, many people keep the same password across all their accounts, leaving them compromised even if one of the passwords is hacked.
Here’s How a Weak Password Looks Like
- Making use of generic words or phrases like yourname1234 or your company’s name.
- Using any of your personal information that is easily accessible elsewhere such as your date of birth, your home address, name of your partner or family members, or your phone number.
- Using simple keyboard keystrokes such as 123456 or qwerty.
- Keeping the same password across all your accounts
- Not changing your passwords occasionally, especially after you have found out that there has been a breach.
- Storing your passwords in a location on your system such as a note pad or in a word document file. You should also avoid pasting sticky notes, or hiding password carrying notes under your keyboard or somewhere else.
Whether you are an individual or a company that has developed an application for desktops or smartphones, it is very important to protect your password and your user’s passwords. Without strong IT security behind you, there is always a risk of losing your personal information through a password breach.
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to ensure you are 100% protected from a cyber attack. Every business is vulnerable, but the better your IT security is, the safer you’ll be from cyber criminals. That’s why we provide network security solutions to companies of all sizes across a variety of industries.
Any IT company can fix a computer, but our focus is on expertly securing your data so that we don’t have to. And if you do fall victim to a cyber-attack, Outsource My IT’s data backup and disaster recovery services will be there so that your business doesn’t suffer.
