Developing fresh, unique secure password for your online accounts can be tedious. Remembering the right combination of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters can be difficult.
In this article, we’ll show you how to keep track of all your passwords and how to create strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts.
Secure Password: How To Choose It And Avoid Being Hacked
1. You should only sometimes utilize the same one.
The statement is self-evident, but it is worth restating. Many people use the same secure password for all of their accounts, which is shocking. This makes it easy to remember, but if you use the same email address or login across many accounts, you’ve effectively been hacked on all of them.
It’s crucial to make sure you have a wide variety of passwords to make it hard for hackers, as tempting as it may be to reuse passwords.
Many people find this too overwhelming because remembering so many different passwords is too difficult. Naveed Islam, chief information security officer of payment service provider Dojo, reported that this results in risky behavior.
From logging into your email to conducting financial transactions, passwords are the keys to the digital kingdom. The rise of password usage has resulted from the explosion of internet services. This has resulted in password fatigue, which is the feeling many people have when remembering too many passwords as part of their routine. Because of the hassle of remembering several passwords, many people resort to using the same password for all of their accounts on different websites. Because of the prevalence of these defense mechanisms, they are easy targets for attackers.
The suggestions below should help you at least reduce the dangers, although security and convenience are challenging things to balance.
2. Avoid using easy-to-guess information.
Using your mother’s maiden name, birth date, pet’s name, or a combination of those is a common technique to remember passwords.
This may seem ingenious, but these are some of the first things a hacker would do if they’re serious about getting into your account. Additionally, these are the kinds of inquiries you receive when completing forms or even participating in pointless quizzes on Facebook and other sites. If you assume this knowledge is exclusive to you, you might be surprised to learn that it is widely available online.
Associating passwords with information that directly pertains to us isn’t smart because the trick with passwords is to make them as random as possible.
3. Use none of these common secure password.
The most popular (and frequently cracked) passwords that people believe secure their sensitive information are published by various researchers every year. Unfortunately, we often see the same ones. It’s hard to believe that anyone is still using these, given this list of the most common passwords used in the US in 2022, as reported by Dashlane.
- Password
- 123456
- 123456789
- 12345678
- 1234567
- Password1
- 12345
- 1234567890
- 1234
- Qwerty123
This list will likely undergo significant revisions in the near future, as many of the current entries will no longer be accepted due to the increasing prevalence of websites that require unique characters, numbers, and other characters. If you are still using any of these passwords, please change them immediately.
4. Stay away from Recurring Ideas
As was previously mentioned, you should make the things that form the foundation of your password as neutral as possible. This will help you avoid utilizing obvious patterns of letters and numbers or personal information.
The most frequently hacked passwords in the world and the main categories into which they fall were detailed in a recent Dojo research. The top 10 are as follows.
Nicknames and other expressions of endearment
- Names
- Animals
- Emotions
- Food
- Colours
- Cursing Behavior
- Relationships within a family
- Manufacturing Companies That Make Automobiles
Avoid taking these as inspiration if you wish to create stronger, more secure passwords.
5. Use a two-factor authentication system.
Most popular websites and apps now allow two-factor authentication when entering from a new device. This typically involves using a verification app or getting a verification code texted to your phone.
A hacker can access your account with your device in hand, which is significantly less common than a software exploit. If you want to protect yourself from possibly weak passwords, it’s worth the minor inconvenience.
6. Strong secure password guidelines
The more you blend upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters (like $%&), the better. Also, include a number in your password.
The first letters of a common phrase, a song lyric, or anything else you can think of are all suggestions for making a password you can remember.
Another strategy involves substituting numbers for letters. Use special characters such as @ in place of o and a, as well as 0 in place of o, 1 in place of I, 4 in place of A, and 3 in place of E.
To remember or type that is pretty easy. For an even more secure password, capitalize the initial letter of each word, including the b.
It is advised to avoid using short passwords because they are easier to crack and require less work. As patterns can be hacked more quickly than random factors, avoid combinations like your initials or the initials of your family or firm.
Avoid using any identifying information, such as nicknames, expressions of endearment, brand names, or even your star sign.
As our minds are trained to remember things, which typically involve some pattern or association, this can be quite hard for regular people to remember. Fortunately, you can save time and effort by using one of the many readily available tools.
7. Use a random-number generator for your secure password.
Using a password generator is the fastest way to generate a long, secure password. These apps (which can also be accessed online) will generate random passwords for you, complete with any combination of characters, length, and complexity you need. These are typically free and relatively easy to use.
The password generator that is a part of Bitwarden, a free password manager, is presented below:
8. Make Use of a Password Manager
Using a password manager is the best method to deal with the ever-increasing need for more complicated secure password. These will serve as a centralized repository for all of your login information, generate secure random passwords for each of your accounts, and fill out login forms for websites and apps on your behalf.
The best part is that the password manager takes care of everything after you only need to remember one password for the service.
Dashlane and 1Password are two of the most well-known services, but you can see which ones we think are the best in our comparison of password managers.
Your phone or web browser can remember your login information. Both methods are unique and will not remember your login information across all your devices and apps. A password manager is, therefore, the superior choice in this situation.