Today, Thursday 2 May, we celebrate the ‘World Password Day‘, an anniversary which aims to promote best practices in terms of safety. Passwords are the first line of defense against cybercriminals and it is therefore essential to ensure they are as secure as possible.
A common mistake people make is using the same password for all their accounts. In fact, an online survey by Google found that at least 65% of people use identical passwords on multiple sites, if not on all. This means that passwords can be easily cracked and it is interesting to note that, according to the ‘Verizon data leak investigations report’, compromised passwords are responsible for 81% of data leaks linked to criminal activity.
Veronica Pace, head of marketing at Trend Micro Italia, offers 10 tips and tricks to create strong passwords:
1. Do not use letters and numbers in sequence (for example, qwerty, abcde, 12345, asdf). They are too common and easy to guess.
2. Never use your date of birth as a password.
3. Combine letters, numbers and symbols to form a password of at least eight characters.
4. Avoid using your own name as a password.
5. Do not create a password that contains personal information.
6. Avoid using too common passwords.
7. Stop reusing passwords. Each password created must be unique.
8. Strong passwords can also be long passphrases in which several words are combined into a long string of characters.
9. Avoid changing just one character each time that the password is updated.
10. Use a password generator and a password manager. Do not write passwords in notebooks or on sticky notes.
In addition to creating strong passwords, it is important to use a password manager to securely store and manage all your passwords. This ensures that you do not forget them and also helps in generating unique, complex passwords for each account.
By following these tips and using a password manager, you can enhance the security of your accounts and protect yourself against cyber threats on World Password Day and every day.