Passwords are meant to protect your accounts, device or any platform that stores any sort of information. Most of us know the use of a password, but what to keep as a password is still an unspoken truth. But here we are helping you to create a strong password along with offering a few additional password security tips to stay secure in this highly vulnerable digital world.
What Makes A Password Weaker?
The weaker passwords are even worse than having no password, at least you pay more attention when there is no password. The easy-to-guess passwords make it a cake-walk for hackers to access your account and steal your data. So, let’s check if your password is weak, or strong enough to protect your account. So, if your password has been made up using any of the below-given practice, it needs amendment RIGHT NOW!
Made Up from Common Words:
The words like Password, your name, or anything that is too simple to guess, make a password weak. Hackers usually track your information before and use every related information to guess your password. So, make sure your password doesn’t include very common words that are closely related to you.
Using A Very Usual Combination:
If the people who know you, can easily get the idea for your password, you need a strong password. So using your last name, your Date of birth, or name of your spouse is a big NO if you really need strong security. So, make sure you aren’t adding identifying information in your password, to escape the hackers.
A Very Short Password:
Longer passwords are considered to be stronger than the short password because it takes pretty good efforts to break a long password. Also, if you are substituting the number with alphabets or vice versa, it becomes even easier to guess. For example “F1avoR” where L is replaced with 1.
How A Password Does Gets Hacked?
Hackers work on tricks and methods such as Permutation and Combination based software, and getting the password from the dark web. The trade of passwords is not a new game, thus the safety of your data is in your hands. Dark-web is a bane of digitalization and we constantly fight with it on a day to day basis. So, if you follow the security measures in a proper manner, you can avoid the cyber-attacks and keep your account secure.
Ways to Secure Your Password:
There are certain measures that you need to follow such as mixing letters, alphabets, numbers, and cases, keeping a long password, and more. Here are a few effective tips using which you can attain the maximum level of security with your password.
- Use a unique password: Every digital platform is now secured with a password, from your computing device, email account to shopping websites, the password is an important login credential for each platform. So, make sure that you are using a different password for everything that needs to be secured with a password. If you like to keep the same password everywhere, you may fall into serious trouble soon as hackers just need to guess once and he/she can easily access all your accounts with the same password.
- Do not keep a written track of password: If you like to write down your password, you need to stop this habit right away as it takes very less amount of effort to steal your password from the written track.
- Use a password manager: There are numerous apps called password managers and such apps are the best way to keep your password secure and away from the reach of intruders. A password manager stores all your passwords in one place and all you need is to remember only one key using which you can open a password manager.
- Never share your password: This is basically a rule that you need to follow strictly. So, make sure you don’t share your password, no matter who the next person is.
How to Make a Strong Password?
In order to make a strong password, you need to build in such a manner that it cannot be predicted easily. There are a few key points that can help you create or choose a strong password that ensures better safety of your digital product or platform:
- Add minimum 12 characters: The length of password matters and the apt length of the password is; at least 12 characters. From 12 to 14 mixed characters make a perfect password. If you have a sharp memory, you can keep an even longer password. This trick is best if the platform doesn’t have any rule for password-characters as some platforms only accept 8-10 characters for the password. So, depending upon the case, choose the maximum length possible.
- Use different combinations: Use the maximum variety of Numbers, Symbols, Capital Letters, and Lower-Case Letters. This way you can make a password that can be cracked by tools.
- Use code based passwords: You can turn your day to day phrases and sentences into codes and keep them as your password. Sound fun! Right? But make sure the sentences you are using must be the product of your thought process and not a very common phrase that you usually use among people. Also, only use the codes which you can remember and relate to. Some of the examples are:
- L8r_L8rNot2day (Later, later, not today – from the kid’s rhyme)
- 4Score&7yrsAgo (Four score and seven years ago – from the Gettysburg Address)
- 14A&A41dumaS (one for all and all for 1 – from The Three Musketeers, by Dumas)
Keep product-specific password: You can use this simple approach to create a unique password for every platform. You can simply use the code which includes the name of the site you are using. But make sure, no one else would ever come across your trick, else they can easily access every digital platform you are active on.Extensively use your keyboard: Your keyboard is not only a plate of buttons that only help in operating your computing device, but it has a lot more to offer. Indeed, you can create a powerful password if you play with your keyboard in the right manner. Some easy-peasy tricks are:
- Add emoticons to password: If the platform you are signing-up allows emoticons in the password, nothing can be a better approach towards creating a powerful password. Even if the emoticons are not allowed, you can simply use different symbols to create an emoticon. Such as “:)” creates a smiling face, or “<3” creates a heart. So, adjoining symbols can create a strong as well as easy-to-remember password.
- Use the common symbols and basic smiley faces. such as
AND
This way you can create a very strong, lengthy and memorable password, using minimal efforts and tricks. Make sure never to disclose the practices you are using while creating a password. But you can definitely share this article, so can your loved ones can also protect their data from unauthorized access.
Additional Tips to Secure Your Passwords
To protect your password and other log-in information, you can follow the series of tips given below:
- Use VPN on public Wi-Fi: Hackers usually attack you from the public Wi-Fi platforms, so in such cases using VPN can act as a savior and save your login credentials from intrusion.
- Though it is preferred not to share your password, in case you get into the situation where sharing a password becomes necessary, share it over the call and never email or Text your password.
- Using a security question is also very effective to secure your account. The security programs add an extra shield of security and prevent intruders from entering into your data. But make sure you are using a good quality antivirus to protect your account.
- Turn two-step authentication: It is the perfect way to secure your data, as you get a code or key whenever you try to login to your Microsoft account. TFA consists of one out of three components, namely:
- Things you know: A PIN code or security key
- The thing you have: Your phone on which you will receive an authentication code via SMS.
- What you are biometric data, such as your fingerprint.