Password security is now more important than ever!
I didn’t know that the first Thursday in May was World Password Day, until I saw a post by Lincoln Coutts via LinkedIn.
Although it’s a nice coincidence as I was planning on sharing some tips about improving your passwords.
Password Basics
I think it’s pretty safe to say that everyone has a number of passwords that they use to access information.
We use them as the first option to prove (authenticate) that you have permission to access information, be it your data, something you’ve paid for or company systems.
Passwords are made up of:
- Minimum number of characters
- Capital (Upper case) letters
- Lower case letters
- Numbers
- Symbols
We all know that passwords security is more complex than “password” or “password123”.
What does this mean and what is good practice?
2021 Best Practice
Best practice is changing regularly as hackers and other digital thieves ‘improve’ their practices.
So what are the experts currently offering as best practice?
Length
We’ve moved on from a 4 digit passcode or just a single word.
It’s now ‘recommended’ that your password is longer and longer.
Passwords today have a minimum length – somewhere between 6-9 character.
The new recommendation that you use a phrase – perhaps 20+ characters, I’ve even seen a suggestion of 60+ characters
Length Tip
Instead of a password, move to a passphrase.
A phrase can be a number of words or even a sentence that you can remember.
‘Thisisagreatideaforpasswords’ – that’s 28 characters, and if you add spaces it becomes 34 characters.
Another suggestion is to string together 3 or 4 random words:
‘Tick-sun-happy-move’ – shorter, and still 19 characters.
‘wkoz-dpws-mdsa-elyp’ – also 19 characters, but let’s be honest difficult to remember as it’s random letters grouped together.
Complexity
We’re told that making our passwords more complex will make them harder for someone (e.g. a hacker) to break, and basically impossible to guess.
You add in different characters (!, $, &, @ and others) and use random letters
A simple option to help you remember your complex password is to create little ‘rules’ for yourself that you follow to explain what you changed.
Numbers and Symbols
- Replace a letter with a similar number e.g. 1 looks like i, I, l and L
- Replace a letter or a number with symbols e.g. @ for a, or ! for 1
Complexity Tip
A simple tip about capital letters – we know that we need to include them in the password.
Put them in more random places. i.e. not at the beginning of the sentence, especially if you only use them once.
Go the extra step and mix it all up:
‘th!sisAgr3@t!deaforP@55w0rds’
Think someone would be able to guess that?
Different Passwords
It’s also very tempting to re-use the same password over and over again (I’ve done that before), however that’s not the best option.
Ideally you should use a different password for every account that you create.
And I don’t mean just changing the number at the end.
This way if one password is discovered, it’s only going to effect that one account.
Hackers will try the password that they know with a number of accounts – just in case it works.
At the very least, use different passwords for the really important accounts e.g. Bank, Email or Online Shopping.
How I am supposed to remember and type in all of these long and complex options?
Next Level Password Security with Password Managers
While we’ve been told for years “not to write down your password”, this is becoming more of an issue as they are too long and complex to remember.
However, we do need to record them in a secure way – not on a piece of paper, or on a post-it note next to your screen.
A password manager is a program that requires a master password (again) to access your list of passwords. So you only have to remember one password not all of them.
They also have additional facilities – from suggesting a secure password, allowing you to copy and paste into webpages/programs to automatically logging into some websites, and can store other personal information.
There are a number to choose, some specific to an operating system (Windows, Apple) while others have are universal or have versions for each OS.
Here are a few that I’ve heard good things about.
It’s your choice to find the one that suits you best. Remember there are free and paid versions out there.
Dashlane
Cross platform option, and rated for security focused extras
1Password
Originally designed for Apple devices, it’s now available on Windows as well
Nordpass
Cross Platform from the makers of NordVPN
Keeper
Secure Cross-Platform option with top ratings
For more advice have a look at the posts from TechRadar and PC Mag
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