Creating and maintaining strong passwords is one of the easiest steps you can take to thwart the internet bad guys who bank on your process of using obvious patterns, dates and names personal to you.
1. Never use anything close to the following:
- Your name (friends or family), login or username
- Personal dates (Birth, marriage, anniversary)
- Previously used passwords
- Keyboard patterns (qwerty, asdfghjkl, or 12345678)
2. Password managers are a safe, cheap (free) and easy way to go. Just remember one password to log in to the manager and it will do the heavy lifting for you by creating strong, lengthy passwords with complexity. Here are a few to browse:
LastPass
KeePass
SplashID
1Password
3. If you're not the type to use a system such as this, please change your password every 90 days and create passwords that are strong. To make sure your password is secure, try one of these password strength checkers:
The Password Meter
How Secure Is My Password
Kaspersky Lab
4. Cracking your password is the easiest means for someone to begin stealing your banking and payment info, social media accounts and anything tied to the email they’ve just accessed. If you find that you’ve been compromised, please follow these steps.
Want to safeguard your information security? We're here to help! Please feel free to Contact Us anytime! (512) 388-5559
CEO, Central Texas Technology Solutions