Long gone are the days where we had to manage only a couple of memorable passwords.
These days, we need usernames and password for just about everything, from banking to online shopping and social media.
Passwords ABC
A) Non-guessable
(i.e. not your children’s or pet names)
B) Unique and not used for anything else
(because if one account is compromised, all of your accounts are at risk)
C) Complexity
(Mixture of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols – and the more, the merrier)
On top of that, you really should change your passwords regularly, at least every 3 months – to make them just that bit harder to hack.
However, in reality, these are the most common passwords used according to SplashData:
Rank |
2016[3] |
2017[9] |
2018[10] |
1 |
123456 |
123456 |
123456 |
2 |
password |
password |
password |
3 |
12345 |
12345678 |
123456789 |
4 |
12345678 |
qwerty |
12345678 |
5 |
football |
12345 |
12345 |
6 |
qwerty |
123456789 |
111111 |
7 |
1234567890 |
letmein |
1234567 |
8 |
1234567 |
1234567 |
sunshine |
9 |
princess |
football |
qwerty |
10 |
1234 |
iloveyou |
iloveyou |
As you can see, we really haven’t improved on the complexity all that much in the last three years!
Why? And how do we change that?
Passwords made easy – and secure!
Most likely, because we simply cannot remember complex passwords for 100s of logins.
So, what we tend to do, is to write them down. Not a bad idea in principle, but if that piece of paper (or file if you do it on a computer) falls into the wrong hands, well, let’s just say that banks are unlikely to treat us kindly as they specifically advise us against writing any of our passwords down. Plus, unless you carry that piece of paper around with you (please don’t!) you will not have access to your passwords whilst you are out and about, or on holiday.
Fortunately, there is a better and more secure way of keeping our passwords safe – by using Password Managers such as Dashlane, Roboform, 1Password and many more.
They all work based on the same principle – they remember your passwords, stick them into a virtual vault which you can open with ONE master password – yep, just ONE password to remember.
Some also create unique and complex passwords for you (so you don’t have to come up with your own), sync across devices, check for duplication and compromised sites and even fill them in automatically in a browser – basically taking all the hassle out of password management.
Which one you choose is up to you of course, but it’s worth checking your choice for its reputation, whether it uses encryption (yes please), stores the master password (definite no no) and has two-factor-authentication.
But what if someone hacks your password manager?
If you are using two-factor-authentication, it’s very unlikely.
No, not impossible of course – nothing is 100% secure – but it’s still much more secure than using non-complex passwords or writing them down.
If you have a website, then there is a good chance it is using PHP – and it’s important to know which version – because PHP 5 is going to leave your website extremely vulnerable come the end of this year…
And finally
Get in touch if you want any advice, or prefer for us to set you up with a password manager securely, so you can be rest assured that you are protected against all the latest security risks.
Have PC Harmony,
so you can concentrate on the more important things in life…
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