Top tips for passwords
Funnily enough, we’re willing to bet that the majority of people didn’t really need to have passwords back in the 20th century, however along with the rise of the Internet over the past two decades has come the increase of user profiles that all need passwords. Just think about it: most of us have several user accounts on various websites these days, and all of them require passwords.
One of the cornerstones to online safety is having a good grasp of your passwords after all, but many people don’t seem to take this as seriously as they should be doing. At Winzum we are heavily committed to keeping you lovely lot safe online, as you can see here [Winzum guide to staying safe online].
We’re always trying to find new ways to spread knowledge about online safety, so we thought it’d be a good idea to give some top tips when it comes to making quality computer passwords.
Don’t make all of your passwords the same
Look, we’ll be the first ones to put our hands up and say that it can be a hassle keeping track of all of your different passwords for things, but this should never be an excuse to simply have them as all the same thing. In fact, this is probably the worst thing you can do for password safety.
Having the same password for everything means that as soon as criminal uncovers one of your passwords they could theoretically gain access to all of your accounts. Don’t make your passwords all the same! This is an absolute cornerstone to password safety.
Use a password strength checker
Another incredibly important thing to make sure you are doing with passwords is utilizing a password strength checker, as this gives you a concrete way of genuinely making sure your password strength is up to scratch. There are many ways of ensuring your password strength is as high as possible, and this is a great place to start.
What you will genuinely find is that a blend of as many different characters, numbers and cases will deliver the best password strength. Additionally, if you really want to be secure it is advisable to avoid using any real words for maximum password strength.
Change your passwords regularly
Sure, it can be a lot of effort changing your passwords regularly, especially if you have several different accounts, however this is a great way to make certain of your online safety.
Get into the habit of changing your passwords every month or two and you will drastically improve your password safety. It might take a little while, but it will be invaluable if it saves you from online fraud!
Don’t make a password something obvious about you
Password strength can depend on the different types of characters used, however there are other things to focus on here as well. For example, if your password relates to something obvious about you (i.e. a birthday or nationality), it will become way easier for criminals to guess it.
As tempting as it may be to base your passwords about things intrinsic to you, you are better off avoiding this if you want your password strength to be as high as possible.