THE PASSWORD IS... KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SAFE Danielle Beadle
As technology advances every day, we tend to find ourselves online more. While we shop online and create accounts to new streaming platforms, we are constantly putting in our information. Often, this information is protected by a password. Here are some tips to ensure your information is always protected by creating a strong password. Although it may be easy to remember, avoid using personal information. Anything that could be publicly available, like addresses, phone numbers, or birthdays, do not use. This information could be easily accessible to hackers. Create longer passwords. The longer the password is, the harder it is to crack. Shoot for a goal of at least 10 characters; however, 14 characters is ideal. “Length beats complexity any day. Most modern sites will accept longer passwords and spaces, which simplifies creating and remembering passwords. Instead of trying to come up with a single word with symbols and numbers added to the end, try to think of a passphrase. A sentence is going to be more secure— and probably easier to remember! ‘Gabe’s feet smell really bad’ vs. $pArkY2021’,” says Emma Knecht of Golden West Technologies. This makes it a lot more difficult for a hacker to guess. There are many programs that are available to hackers that are very effective at guessing your password. These programs can process every word that is in the dictionary, plus letter and number combinations, until a match is found. By using spaces in between words to make a phrase, these programs B y D a n i elle B ea dle have a much more difficult time succeeding.
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Science & Technology
