Passwords are among the most critical ways to keep your accounts safe from others’ viewing in the online world. As technology continues to develop better forms of protection from unauthorized access, most all services that are digital will continue to depend on passwords as their initial form of protection.
The majority of password usage can be seen with such digital services as e-mail account, social media, online banking and/or storing data in cloud service; therefore, passwords play a major role in securing a significant amount of our digitally stored information. Unfortunately, many users of digital services still choose to utilize weak passwords, which increase the ease at which an attacker may gain access to sensitive data.
Understanding how to generate strong passwords and properly managing those generated passwords is an important action toward enhancing your overall online security.
Why Strong Passwords Matter
Each day, cybercriminals are trying to gain entry into an individual’s online accounts by using many different types of methods of attack. There are two primary types of attack being used by these crooks. The first type of attack uses automated tools which can test over 1,000 or even million possible password combinations per second. These tools can then be used by criminals to test their guesses against each account they target until they find one that works. The second type of attack relies on information obtained through data breaches or publically available on the internet about the victim.
If you use a weak password (weak in terms of length, or how unique the combination is), you increase your chances of having a password guessed by an attacker. In addition, once an attacker gains access to one of an individuals’ accounts, it is easy for them to gain access to all of the other accounts that share the same password as well.
As such, creating strong passwords, and using a unique password for every account you have, is essential to keeping safe your personal data, financial information, and private communication.
Characteristics of a Strong Password
A well-designed password will be resistant to guessing by an attacker or cracking with automated attack tools. There are several ways to design a more secure password.
Firstly, length matters as longer passwords are generally easier to defend against brute-force attacks (i.e., attempts to try all possible combinations) than shorter ones. Most security professionals recommend passwords of 12 or more characters.
Secondly, a better way to design a password would be to create one with a mix of character types: upper case letters, lower case letters, numbers and/or special symbols.
Thirdly, a good way to design a password is to use none of the common words or predictably structured patterns. The most commonly used passwords are “password”, “admin” and “welcome”, so these are typically the first to be tried when attacking a system.
Lastly, you should never use your own personal information in a password, such as names, birthdates, phone numbers, etc., as this may be found on social media or through public records.
Avoid Reusing Passwords
One of the biggest mistakes people make in terms of security is when they are using the same password for every website they sign up for. Although it may be easy to remember, using the same password for every site you visit creates some major security risks.
If there is a data breach at one site that has your email address and password, an attacker will likely try to use the same credentials (email and password) to access many of the other sites you probably use most often. This is known as credential stuffing.
When you have a different password for every account, if one site is breached, it does not automatically compromise all the other services you use.
Consider Using a Password Manager
Managing many different passwords can be challenging, especially with creating multiple strong and unique combinations for each account.
Password managers are helpful for this issue. A password manager is a secure tool that will store your login credentials (username/password) and enter those credentials for you when you need to log into a site or application. Password managers typically generate random and strong passwords for new sites and applications as well.
These tools use encryption to protect your passwords in a digital vault, so users do not have to remember hundreds of complex passwords to keep their accounts safe.
Enable Two-Factor Authentication
Although some hackers may crack your password, they will always require that you give them another way into your accounts with two factor authentication (2FA).
When you are using 2FA to log into your accounts, it is going to ask for the second piece of information once you have entered your password. The second piece of information could be a six digit number given to you through SMS (text) message, a push on an app, a notification on your phone, or even by scanning a fingerprint.
Once you have added this second step to your login process, no matter how well they know your password, an attacker will still need to get their hands on your second authentication method as well as your password before they can gain access to your account.
Stay Alert to Phishing Attempts
Below are other risks to password security from phishing attacks. Phishing attackers attempt to trick users into entering their passwords by sending false emails or messages that appear to come from legitimate companies.
Typically these false emails will contain a link to a fake login page that looks very similar to the real company website. If the user inputs their credentials on this false page the attacker is able to capture the information and use it to access the account.
Usually you can protect yourself from phishing type attacks by being careful with unexpected emails and always checking the web site address before inputting login details.
Protect Your Email Account
You can consider your email account as an entry point to all sorts of other resources. A hacker who has control over your email account may then be able to reset a password on a different account that you have set up using your email account (e.g., social media, banking).
For these reasons, it is particularly significant to establish a very secure password for your email account and to utilize two-factor authentication in addition to a good password.
Many users also restrict how frequently they will send out their primary email address online. Temporary email services, such as Evap Mail, may assist with limiting your exposure to hackers when receiving verification emails from companies, etc., since those companies do not see your actual email address and therefore cannot send you spam.
Using a primary email account as less accessible can protect your main email account from spammers and unwanted messages.
Final Thoughts
Passwords continue to play a vital role in protecting online accounts and personal data. While cybersecurity threats continue to evolve, many security breaches still occur because of weak or reused passwords.
Creating strong, unique passwords for each account, enabling two-factor authentication, and staying aware of phishing attempts are all important steps toward improving digital security.
Although no system can guarantee complete protection, practicing these habits can significantly reduce the chances of unauthorized access and help keep your online accounts safer.