Your Password May Make You a Victim of Hacking

Passwords are key to protecting online accounts. But can you really remember dozens of different passwords, each dotted with their own numbers and symbols? Probably not, and you no longer need to.

The new SANS Institute newsletter explains three ways to simplify your passwords while still protecting your information. Read the full newsletter here.

Passphrases are a great way to create a strong password that’s also easy for you to remember. They don’t require numbers or symbols, they just need to be long. A passphrase uses a short sentence or random words. For example, “timeforstrongcoffee!” (time for strong coffee!). It’s 20 characters long, which makes it harder for hackers to crack, and because it’s a sentence it’s easy to remember.

Password managers are another great tool to keep your accounts secure, and you sane. While it may be tedious, you should have different passwords for every account. Reusing the same passwords can put you in a lot of danger because all a hacker has to do is get into one of your accounts and suddenly they have access to all of them. A password manager securely stores all of your passwords in one encrypted vault. Then you just need to remember one password – the one to get into the password manager. It will automatically retrieve your passwords when you need them and log you into websites.

Finally, two-step verification can keep your information safe. It adds an additional layer of security to your personal information.

Be sure to read the full newsletter to learn more about that and all of the tips!

See our webinar on Current Cyber Security Trends here.