Top 10 Tips for Invincible Passwords

January 15, 2024

Are Your Passwords Protecting You?

Securing your digital world has rapidly become as important or arguably more important than securing your home. After all, the virtual landscape is crawling with potential intruders who excel in the art of stealth… Within these digital domains, we entrust a huge amount of valuable and private information, so the prospect of someone gaining access is not only disconcerting but potentially devastating.

Not setting secure passwords could be likened to storing all your valuables in a garden shed with a faulty padlock. It’s laughable but with with 81% of confirmed breaches due to weak, reused, or stolen passwords, it suddenly becomes serious business! So don’t give away the keys to your digital kingdom. Read our top 10 tips to ensure your passwords are strong and your security measures are up to date to keep your personal and business data safe.

1. Complexity is Key: Create passwords that are complex and unique. Combine uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters. However, as you will read below, what we may think is a complex password may not be as secure as we may think…

2. Use Passphrases: A kangaroo eating spinach while balancing on a rocking chair. Is the image in your head? It’s hard to forget right? Passphrases can help keep passwords memorable while at the same time being much harder to crack. This crazy image can be transformed into a password like: kangaroo-spinach-RockingChair. Let your imagination run wild and remember to keep it random!

3. Keep it Long: Longer passwords are inherently more secure. Aim for a minimum of 12 characters but ideally 20 characters or more. Passphrases can definitely help with this.

4. Ditch the Obvious: Resist the temptation to use easily guessable information, such as your name, username, email address “password,” or sequential numbers. 96% of the most common passwords can be cracked by hacking tools in less than one second. Even random words found in the dictionary are easy to hack. Opt for something unpredictable that only you would understand.

5. Uniquely Special: Use different passwords for different accounts. If one gets compromised, it won’t open the gates to your entire digital kingdom.

6. Update, Update, Update: Regularly change your passwords, especially for critical accounts like email and banking. This adds an extra layer of protection and keeps potential threats on their toes.

7. Two-Factor Authentication (2FA): Enable 2FA whenever possible. This adds an extra layer of security by requiring not just a password but also a secondary verification method, such as a code sent to your phone or email address.

8. Beware of Phishing Hooks: Be cautious about clicking on links or providing your password in response to unexpected emails. Phishers often pose as legitimate entities to trick you into revealing sensitive information.

9. Password Managers are Your Allies: Consider using a reputable password manager. These tools generate strong, unique passwords for each of your accounts and store them securely, so you only need to remember one master password.

10. Keep Ahead of the Curve:
Technology is always advancing, and organisations are constantly looking for ways to increase security and protect information. Passwords may have served a purpose but now is potentially the time to switch to a simpler and safer alternative. Many major companies like Google, Microsoft, Apple and Alliance are now supporting ‘Passkeys’.

Passkeys are a new way to sign in to apps and websites, using your device as the key. You can use different options as your key, like fingerprint and face ID, screen lock or a hardware security key. You can set up a passkey on each device you own eliminating the need to remember pesky passwords and at the same time giving you stronger protection against cyber threats. Passkeys are not available everywhere yet but you may have the option on your account to get ahead of the curve and switch to this higher level of security.

Protect the Keys to Your Digital Kingdom

Remember, your valuables are only as safe as your security and often that comes down to your password. We hope you have found some useful tips in this blog on how to improve your passwords and protect your accounts from hackers. If you would like any more advice on how to keep your business data secure and what extra security measures you can implement in your business then please contact us today at NT Voice & Data.