A popular method for choosing a password is to open a dictionary or book and choose a random word. But, as random as it may seem to you, a single word is actually quite easy for a hacker to guess. So rather than opting for just one word from the dictionary, choose a few and string them together along with numbers and symbols to make it much trickier for someone to figure out. If you want to add symbols to your passwords without making them harder to remember, you can always use emoticons.
But, rather than starting the whole process again, you could simply add a different code into your password for each online account. If you want to remember your password, it can be a good idea to practise typing it several times over.
A secure password manager generates, stores and manages all your passwords in one safe online account. This is really useful because it allows you to use as many unique passwords as you like without ever having to worry about memorising them. This means you only have to remember one strong password as opposed to every single one. A secure password manager will fill all this in for you. Here are some of the best password managers in It may seem insecure to keep all your passwords in one place.
However, the encrypted vault of a reliable password manager is the most secure place you can store your account credentials. Such services never keep your vault's master password, so even breaching the database will keep you safe from harm. There are lots of great password manager tools out there, but we recommend NordPass for its intuitive design and cutting-edge encryption. Even if someone does manage to steal your password, you can still prevent them from accessing your account by adding in an additional layer of security with two-factor authentication 2FA.
This means that anyone trying to login to your account will have to enter a second piece of information after the correct password. After all, a hacker could steal your mobile number through SIM swap fraud and access your verification code. Our favourites include:.
This may sound obvious but you must avoid saving any of your passwords in a document, email, online note or anything else that could be hacked. But how do you know if your email has been leaked? Well, we have an online personal data leak checker , which will let you know if anything like this has happened to your email account. Passwords are like the lock on your apartment door — they're the one thing criminals have to go through if you're not home.
Having a weak password is like a weak lock. Keeping in mind the nature of a brute force attack, you can take specific steps to keep the brutes at bay:. The key to staving off this type of attack is to ensure the password is not just a single word.
Multiple words will confuse this tactic — remember, these attacks reduce the possible number of guesses to the number of words we might use to the exponential power of the number of words we are using, as explained in the popular XKCD post on this topic. At Avast, we know a thing or two about cybersecurity.
We know what makes a solid password, and we have our favorite methods to create them. The methods below give you some good password ideas to create your own strong, memorable passwords. This is the multiple word phrase method with a twist — choose bizarre and uncommon words. Use proper nouns, the names of local businesses, historical figures, any words you know in another language, etc.
A hacker might guess Quagmire, but he or she would find it ridiculously challenging to try to guess a good password example like this:. While the words should be uncommon, try to compose a phrase that gives you a mental image. This will help you remember. To crank it up another notch in complexity, you can add random characters in the middle of your words or between the words. This method is also described as the "Bruce Schneier Method. Make sure the sentence you choose is as personal and unguessable as possible.
Each of these can help with better and more secure authentications. A password manager keeps track of all of your passwords and does all the remembering for you, except for one thing — the master password which grants you access to your password manager. For that big kahuna, we encourage you to use every tip and trick listed above. The programs also come with generators, such as the Avast Random Password Generator shown below, so you can create super-complicated, extra-long passwords that are infinitely more difficult to crack than any passwords a human might come up with.
PC Magazine has a series of recommendations of password managers here. Check the Avast Hack Check site to see if your password has been leaked in previous data breaches. If it has, change your password on your email account immediately.
Before starting up accounts, creating passwords, and entrusting a website with sensitive info, take a moment to assess the site. Does it have https in the address bar, ensuring a secure connection? Do you get the sense it is up on the newest security standards of the day? If not, think twice about sharing any personal data with it. Multi-factor authentication MFA adds an extra layer of protection which becomes your first layer of protection should your account details ever get leaked.
These have become the new industry standard for effective security. In our blog post here , we explain how they are used and how you can add MFA to common social accounts such as Twitter and Facebook. They require something in addition to a password, such as biometrics fingerprint, eye scan, etc. Further reading: How to use multi-factor authentication for safer apps.
This is a well-trod path by many hackers in the past few years. The best MFA method is to use a specialized app for your smartphone. The app generates a one-time PIN that you enter as the additional factor during your login process. The PINs automatically change every 30 seconds. It serves as your MFA, granting you file access only if you physically have the key. In , Google mandated all of its employees to begin using security keys , and the company claims it has not experienced a single data breach among its 85, workers since.
They have their own product called the Titan Security Key , designed specifically to protect people against phishing attacks. For MFA and security keys: check out the FIDO alliance , which is working on creating strong authentication standards for desktop and mobile apps. When a certain security key, website, mobile app, etc. It could be a phrase about money for a banking site, and so on. Considering that most computer keyboards contain to keys, you have a ton of options when it comes to crafting a unique password.
Or, create your own system- C? Is your state cyber secure? Or is it one of the most hackable? Find out in our Cyber Hygiene Risk report. What Makes a Password Strong? A long password is a strong password. The harder a hacker or a code-breaking software application has to work, the better. The number of substitutions can be easily guessed. Substituting the number 1 for the letter l is easy to guess for both humans and software. How to Keep a Strong Password Secure So you've settled on a password that's the perfect length, obscure, and mixes letters, numbers, and cases.
In can be tempting, especially in the workplace, to keep track of passwords f the old-fashioned way, but these are easily discovered.
Use a password manager. There are many apps that store your passwords securely.
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