Password Day - Stay Safe Online
Your passwords are your unique way of accessing a variety of different websites, emails accounts and even your own PC. Your password is the most surefire way for these sites to be able to recognise your identity. While you may think you have spent ages coming up with a great password, they can be unbelievably simple for hackers and fraudsters to work out, giving them instant access to all your online information.
The use of strong passwords is therefore essential in order to protect both your online security and identity. The best security in the world is useless if a malicious person has access to a legitimate user name and password.
As a provider of super safe and secure websites, we always advise our clients to think long and hard about the passwords they choose. Here are our top 5 tips for making your passwords as safe as can be:
1. Try and create a password that would be hard for anyone else to guess
Ideally your password should be 12 characters in length, and be a mixture of symbols and numbers, using uppercase and lowercase throughout. Do not be tempted to link your password to your username. Whilst this may seem like an easy way of remembering your own passwords, it’s also a very obvious choice when it comes to malicious use of your online information.
You could even shorten an entire phrase to use as your password, or passphrase for example something like “Banner77youth2upward” is a great mix of words and symbols.
2. Use a different password for each account
Again, whilst it may be harder to remember all of your different passwords, it will also make it much harder for any potential hacks to take place. Having different passwords for all of your online accounts means that they are less vulnerable and less at risk from malicious users. You should try to change passwords regularly - the more often you change it, the more secure your information will be.
3. Use a password manager
To combat forgotten passwords, enlist the help of a secure password manager system. This type of software will store all of your passwords for you and can even generate stronger, more secure passwords should you need them to. This makes your passwords super secure at all times, and stops you needing to worry about remembering them.
4. Turn on multi-factor authentication
By working as an extra layer of protection, multi-factor authentication significantly decreases the risk of someone else accessing your account. These types of procedures supply a greater level of protection than just using a strong password. Examples of a multi-factor authentication could include fingerprint scanning or verification codes that will be sent to your mobile phone number or emailed. These types of extra authentication can be accessed via your mobile phone and are personal to you.
5. Never share your password
As obvious as it sounds, telling everyone else in the office your password, or leaving it written down next to your PC, is a very easy way for strangers to access all of your personal information. Keep your password secret to ensure your ongoing security.
However you keep your online information secure, remember that an experienced and highly skilled web development team can ensure that your own website is safe from anyone trying to access it with bad thoughts in mind. Here at Dynamic Consultants we can build you a safe and super secure website to help grow your business.
So, get involved today and follow the above steps to make sure that you are using secures passwords across all of your online transactions. If we can be of any help, tweet us using #PasswordDay