Why are strong passwords important and how do you remember them?
We all have so many online accounts these days! Everything from our website and webmail for our business, to our banking, shopping and even travel can be managed online and requires passwords to get in and keep your accounts safe. It is nearly impossible to create truly strong and unique passwords for each of your multiple accounts, but don’t worry, there are ways around it! In this article, we’re going to be answering some common questions related to passwords and sharing some of our tips for managing them, without a super memory.
How on earth do you keep track and remember all those pesky passwords? Do you just have one password you use for everything?
The answer to that is definitely a resounding NO! We know it makes it simpler, but remember, you’re protecting your personal information, including bank account details with those passwords, so you really do need to be careful. If you have just one password across all online accounts and you’re unlucky enough to get hacked, they can then access all of your accounts, take them over and potentially lock you out of everything, not to mention let them have a shopping spree on your account!
What is a “strong” password?
You need to create a unique and strong password for each of your accounts. To be strong, it should be at least 12 characters long – more if possible. It should have a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, and include numbers and symbols. It shouldn’t be related to your life, so avoid your date of birth, name or elements of your address and it definitely shouldn’t be “Password”.
How do you come up with lots of strong passwords?
It’s tough when you have so many to come up with and they all need to be long and varied. When you’re busy it’s tempting to just use one that you’ve used before. Before you do, check out the handy unique password generator tools out there. They remove the pain of trying to constantly invent new passwords which are strong enough to fox would-be hackers. They are online tools, which create strong and random passwords and there are free and paid options. Just make sure they are secure themselves!
How do you remember your passwords?
There are tons of memory techniques out there and some people suggest typing it over and over again in order to use muscle memory to recall it. But honestly, with the amount of things we do online now, it’s almost impossible.
Top tip – Use a Password Manager
A good password manager is your friend. It’s just one place which generates, stores and manages all your passwords. Now you do have to remember how to log into that account, but that’s just one password to remember not 50!
There are plenty of systems out there, but our favourite is 1Password, as it’s very secure and is used by more than 100,000 businesses and millions of customers. It uses encryption and only gives the users the opportunity to decrypt it. They work with security experts to make sure their code is up to the challenge and they can’t see your data, so we feel this offers the best protection. It also has other security features, like alerting you to security breaches, protecting you from phishing and keyloggers and more. We also really like their customer support and the easy, friendly user experience.
How do we help keep you secure?
Your security online is our priority, which is why we place a high focus on server security as part of our web hosting service, including rigorous backups and security from imunify360 from leaders in web security Cloud Linux. Our business email service includes a secure webmail environment, secure IMAP and POP connections and premium Anti-Spam and Anti-Virus to fully protect you. Contact us to find out about our digital marketing services.