Passwords: A Refresher In Basic Security

 

I'll get the good stuff out of the way and you can read the blah-de-blah after if you want.  TL;DR -> long passwords/passphrases (min 26 chars) are much more secure than using complicated characters. Computers don't care about the character set, but they do care about hash size. Also, use a password manager like Lastpass or something, and use MFA everywhere you can. 

Password generator sites:


There are reasons to use strong passwords: for example, some websites that use user accounts for marketing purposes argue that the reason for using strong passwords on these websites is to ensure that all comments posted on the website are attributable to their author. The information a user provides to the Site to ensure that this includes more than just a real or fake name, email address and password. The use of the same password or similar passwords required to secure my information on a website allows a person to create and remember a strong password for every website (or any other page), and this is preferred over the approach of non-reuse. But seriously, don't reuse a password anywhere.

The key to online security are strong passwords that are difficult to create and unique passwords that you can remember, especially if you fall into the bad habit of using the same credentials for multiple accounts. Without proper password management, you cannot protect your passwords and even if you use a unique username, your identity is not linked to your personal information in online accounts. To protect yourself and your information, you should use long, strong and hard-to-guess passwords that you can easily remember. 

It is easy to use short, easy-to-remember passwords but they can also pose a serious threat to your online security. To keep your accounts safe, create strong passwords that are hard to guess and store them in a password manager so you don't forget them. You can also use a different strong password for each page you have an account on. 

A password manager can memorize and enter your password for different websites, which means you don't have to remember a very long password. Go through your online accounts and use these tips to create a strong, unique password that can be used by any password manager. Revealing your reused passwords from one account could be the key to other accounts, especially if you use them for many many accounts. For this reason, people should be careful to use a single access point to all their websites and remember that a password manager uses your individual passwords to log in to all your accounts. 

The security risks of password reuse should incentivise most people away from using the same password for many of the same websites. A survey commissioned by the password management website LastPass found that more than 90% of respondents said they understood that it was risky to use the same passwords for multiple accounts and 59% used them for different accounts. While 50% said there was no difference between the passwords they used for work accounts and those used for personal accounts, 55% said they would change their passwords if they knew they were being hacked. As long as your accounts are not compromised and you set strict password policies, there is no need to change your passwords. Well, not often anyway, especially if combined with multi-factor authentication.

Choose a unique password for each account so that if a hacker cracks one account and does not use the password for another, they can access the rest. Check the links at the top of this article for password generators, if you're having trouble coming up with your own.

Oh, and check to see if your email address is linked to any security breaches or hacking activity here:

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