We all know that keeping your accounts secure is important. However, many people do not take the correct steps in protecting their accounts from being infiltrated by a cybercriminal. This puts their accounts at serious risk.
In order to keep your account as secure as possible, you need to create strong passwords. If you don’t know how to create strong passwords, we’ll show you exactly how to do it in this article.
You’ll also need some basic tools that will help you to keep track of the passwords that you have created for each of your accounts. Read on to find out how you can create the most secure accounts.
Why You Should Avoid Weak Passwords
The majority of internet users do not understand how to create strong passwords for their accounts. They simply follow the basic guidelines of what the website in question requires for a password to be created.
In the majority of cases, websites will require one capital letter, one number, and at least 8 characters. While this could create a strong password, many people choose to use their name and date of birth or some other form of personal information to create their passwords.
Using personal information will make your passwords much easier to remember. However, the problem with using personal information to create your account’s passwords is that these are considered to be “weak” passwords.
Even if the website accepts the password because it complies with their basic password requirements, it will still be easy for a cybercriminal to break into your account if they are able to find enough of your personal information.
There are many internet users that use simple information to create their passwords, making them easy to guess. Cybercriminals know this and they will always try some combination of information they can find about you to guess your passwords.
How do I Create Strong Passwords?
Creating strong passwords is simpler than you might think. Many people don’t know how they can create strong passwords that will be sure to keep their accounts safe from cybercriminals.
However, it is much easier than most people think. There are a few simple guidelines that you must follow in order to create strong passwords that are effective in preventing a hacker from breaking into your account.
Creating a strong password comes down to not using anything that relates to your personal information. This includes your name, date of birth, or even your friends, family members, or pets’ names.
As much as you might believe that this is private information, cybercriminals have ways of finding this information. For example, if your social media accounts are not set to private, a hacker simply needs to scan through your posts to find this information.
This information could also be answers to popular security questions that come up when you forget your password. Thus, a hacker would be able to use this information (such as the name of your pet) to reset your account’s password and lock you out of it.
Studies have shown that the strongest passwords are made up of random words, numbers, and special characters that do not relate to you. It is important to remember this when creating your accounts’ passwords.
On top of creating strong passwords, you also need to use unique passwords. This means that no two passwords that you create should be the same. With each account having a different password it will prevent cybercriminals from breaching all of your accounts if they manage to break into one of them.
Cybercriminals know that many people use the same password for multiple different accounts because it’s easier to remember. The first thing a hacker will do once they have successfully infiltrated your accounts is to try and use the same password on different accounts.
How to Keep Track of Your Passwords
If you’re creating strong and unique passwords for all of your accounts you might be wondering how you’re going to keep track of them all. It can be a real challenge to remember each password that you have created.
It might be tempting to use your browser or smartphone’s built-in password manager. However, these password managers are not secure enough and a skilled hacker can easily break into them and steal all your passwords.
The best tool to use is a premium third-party password manager. Third-party password managers are much more secure than the standard ones found on your browser. They are ‘locked’ by a master key which is a randomly generated password that only you have access to.
As long as you remember your master key you will be able to access your list of passwords from anywhere. The third-party password manager will keep your passwords secure and safe, and it will ensure that all of your accounts have strong and unique passwords.
