As part of our dedication to Cyber Security Awareness Month, we will be sharing some simple tips to help you stay safe online.
First up … P4SSW0RD5!
Create long, random, unique passwords with a password manager for safer accounts.
Strong passwords are long, random, and unique and include all four character types (uppercase, lowercase, numbers, and symbols). Password managers are a powerful tool to help you create strong passwords for each of your accounts.
An Easy Way to Protect Your Accounts
Simple passwords, such as 12345, or common identifying information, like birthdays and pet names, are not safe for protecting important accounts holding personal information. Using an easy-to-guess password is like locking the door but leaving the key in the lock. Weak passwords can quickly be broken by computer hackers. But it’s impossible to remember a unique strong password for every account!
The good news is that creating and storing strong passwords with the help of a “password manager” is one of the easiest ways to protect ourselves from someone logging into our accounts and stealing sensitive information, data, money or even our identities.
Strengthen Your Passwords with Three Simple Tips
A strong password follows ALL THREE of these tips.
1. Make them long
At least 16 characters – longer is stronger!
2. Make them random
Two ways to do this are:
Use a random string of mixed-case letters, numbers and symbols. For example:
cXmnZK65rf*&DaaD
Yuc8$RikA34%ZoPPao98t
Another option is to create a memorable phrase of 4 – 7 unrelated words. This is called a “passphrase.” For example:
Good: HorsePurpleHatRun
Great: HorsePurpleHatRunBay
Amazing: Horse Purple Hat Run Bay Lifting
Note: You can use spaces before or between words if you prefer!
3. Make them unique
Use a different strong password for each account.
For example:
Bank: k8dfh8c@Pfv0gB2
Email account: legal tiny facility freehand probable enamel
Social media account: e246gs%mFs#3tv6
PRO TIP: USE A PASSWORD MANAGER
It’s hard to remember all these strong passwords and we don’t want to save them in a file on a computer. Instead, use a password manager.
For most people, generating and remembering long, random and unique passwords for every account is not possible. Rather than write them down, use a password manager! A password manager is an easy-to-use program that generates, stores and even fills in all your passwords. Password managers tell us when we have weak or re-used passwords and can generate strong passwords for us. They can also automatically fill logins into sites and apps as we move from one to another.
When we use a password manager, we only need to remember one strong password—the one for the password manager itself. (Tip: Create a memorable long “passphrase” as described above.)
