Using a strong password is the first step of securing your accounts from bad actors. As of today weak passwords such as “123456”, “qwerty” or “password” itself continues to be the most standard password among less tech-savvy users which makes it extreme likely it may fall under wrong hands.
Some of the users may think it is fine to use such passwords since the website they are registering for offers hashing and encryption. However, smart hackers can still crack it so it’s better to play it safe. To generate a strong password combine it with uppercase and lowercase characters including numbers and special characters.
Don’t use family, friends, pet names, house number, phone number, date of birth, social security number or things that can be easily identified by looking at your identity card.
The best advice is to use our free tool to generate 3-4 password and then combine them together and input some of your desired words or characters. The ideal length will be 12-15 characters which is accepted during registration in almost all of the sites.
Don’t use same password everywhere
What’s also important is that you don’t use the same password everywhere because in an unfortunate event of website hacking the bad actor may have hold of your personal details such as email address, your password, and likely more sensitive information such as your internet banking details.
So you should usually check online tools like Have I Been Pwned or Mozilla’s Firefox Monitor which collects an online database of public data breaches so you can know if your account has been compromised.
A rule of thumb is to not let your web browser (such as Chrome, Safari or Mozilla Firefox) to remember your password during sign in. It’s wiser to be prompted to enter password whenever you want to log in. This is very important especially in sensitive areas such as Internet banking.
Beware of free public WiFi networks
Do not login to important accounts in insecure public WiFi, TOR, free VPN or web-proxy. Always keep in mind that you are browsing only in HTTPS. Unencrypted connection (HTTP) is prone to data leaks.
Secure your account by enabling 2-Step Authentication don’t fall in prey that MD5 hash value can’t be cracked by hackers. It is important that you never save critical passwords in cloud drive.
While you can always store/save locally in your computer the many credentials you have to use for various websites you register, you can use password managers to save the hassle and clutter of managing so many passwords.
Always stay updated
Keep your browser always updated its best to turn on automatic updates. Protect your computer with antivirus or firewall, and remember to change/update your password every 10 weeks.
It doesn’t matter if you are just an individual, hackers are not just limited to breaching companies and big enterprises. The moment you go online there are chances you may get hacked if you do not take precautions. Although these may sound extreme measures but to stay safe and enjoy the internet without hassle you need to keep these things in mind.
Keep browsing & stay safe 🥂