The Do’s and Don’ts for Passwords

Passwords – the necessary evil; we need to have them for every online account (financial and otherwise). And not an easy password we can remember with no problem, they have to include upper case, lower case, numbers, special characters, etc. How’s a person supposed to remember that? We all understand the importance of having a strong password yet we still try to take shortcuts. We have several tips to help you create strong passwords and keep your information safe. Here are a few:

1) Don’t reuse passwords. If a site or service leaks your username and password you can bet those credentials will be tried on other sites.

2) Don’t use personal details in your passwords. Maiden names, addresses, pet names, birthdays, etc. This information isn’t as hard to find as you think.

3) “Password” isn’t a good password. Neither is “1234”. And as you may have guessed “Password1234” isn’t any better. There are lists published with the most common passwords (see our full article for the link) if you want to see if yours is on there.

4) Length and variety are key. The longer the password, the better. And the more different types of characters, the better. 

5) Don’t store your passwords in a document saved on your computer called “Passwords.doc”. The downside of creating unique, complex passwords is that they can be hard to remember. Password managers offer strong protection and tools for managing your passwords. 

It’s more important now than ever to have strong passwords; there has been a 5x increase in cyber attacks during the COVID-19 pandemic. For the details and more tips, you can read the full article here.