If cyber criminals can guess your passwords, they could access most of your online accounts (scary thought!). Even worse is that you may not know that your password has been compromised for several months or years. To keep your passwords up to date and safe from cyber criminals, follow our handy tips below:

Create Strong Passwords

Creating a strong password helps prevent cyber criminals from gaining access to your online accounts. Your passwords should be as long, complex, and random as possible. It’s frustrating, we know, but very worthwhile!

While many websites only require passwords to be eight characters long, we recommend:

• Making your password at least 12 characters long.
• Include numbers and symbols in your password.
• You should also include a combination of lowercase and uppercase letters.
• To keep your accounts extra safe, you can use password phrases, or passphrases. However, when you create your password or passphrase, make sure that you don’t use any personal information that a cyber criminal could guess.
  
  

Don’t Reuse Passwords

Reusing passwords for your online accounts may sound convenient, but it’s also very risky. If you reuse passwords, you could be at risk of having multiple accounts compromised all at the same time. Cyber criminals can also sell passwords or make them available online through the Dark Web. Creating a unique password for each online account reduces the risk if one of your passwords is compromised. There are also systems and software available that will scour the Dark Web to check if any of your passwords are available for sale…

Use Multi-Factor Authentication

You can also use multi-factor authentication (MFA) to secure your online accounts. MFA requires multiple forms of authentication, such as a password and a code from your smartphone or a USB smart key. By requiring you to use multiple forms of authentication, cyber criminals will have a harder time gaining access to your account, even if your password is compromised.

Use a password manager

Like most people, you will probably struggle to remember all of your passwords! Whatever you do, don’t write them down – (even in your own form of code).

One solution is a password manager. Instead of having to remember passwords for every online account, you only need to remember one password for your password manager. In addition to storing your passwords, most password managers can also generate passwords for you based on specific criteria.

For a free IT health check or for more information around Dark Web monitoring, please get in touch:

enquiries@apexcomputing.co.uk