If your password looks like “123456”, “qwerty,” “password” or “iloveyou” then be prepared to change it. Your accounts are far from secure.
It is sometimes very easy for malicious people to discover a password, and when this happens, it is a direct entry into your data.
To avoid this situation, it is essential to strengthen your password, and here’s how to do it.
Create several passwords
Many of us use only one password for all our accounts for memorization purposes.
However, this is a practice to avoid because if someone were to discover your password, they would have easy access to all your data.
To avoid being hacked in cascade, use a unique password for each account.
Use a password generator
A simple solution, the password generator will provide you with a succession of random letters and numbers, difficult to remember, but also challenging to hack.
Dashlane is a recognized password generator that gives you the ability to choose the length of your password. You can even choose whether or not to include letters, numbers, and symbols.
Focus on length
If you do not want to use a password generator but prefer to create it yourself, bet on the length.
This means that you must insert more than ten characters, 12 and 14 being good averages.
The longer your password is, the more complicated it will be to guess.
Vary the characters
Beyond the number of characters, their type is also essential.
Ideally, your password should contain four different types of characters:
- Capital letters
- Lower-case letters
- Some numbers
- Special characters
Feel free to mix them well to obtain a random effect. Because precisely……
Prefer randomness
Your password should not have any particular meaning such as a date, a nickname, your dog’s name, a logical sequence of numbers and letters, etc.
Choose a random password, which means nothing.
Change your password regularly
For greater security, it is recommended to change your password regularly, especially in companies when they provide access to sensitive data.
If someone leaves your company or if you stop working with a service provider who has access to some of your accounts, change your passwords quickly.
Remember passwords without writing them down
Once your password is created to be secure, you realize that it is difficult to remember. Especially since you have several if you have followed advice #1.
Our reflex would be to write them down in a notebook, in our smartphone, in a text file… It’s a terrible idea! Unless you want your passwords to be easily stolen.
So how do we do it? You can use your memory or…
Use a password manager.
A password manager is a database in which you can securely store your IDs and passwords. To access it, you will, of course, have to enter a password, but it will finally be the only one to remember.
