The Password Is

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 have a much more difficult time succeeding.

Now that you know how to create a strong password, you are going to need a way to remember your list of passwords. The simplest way to keep your passwords secure is a pencil and paper. Never put your passwords in your notes on your phone or computer. Write them by hand in a journal that you have constant access to and can supervise. If you feel like you will not be able to keep track of a password journal, another way of keeping track of your passwords is by using an online password manager. The best password managers will require a monthly or annual subscription; however, there are many free ones that do a great job as well. They are secure and often require a two-factor authentication to access them.

“When passwords are hard to remember, it can be tempting to use the same one for every account. However, as soon as that password is compromised, the hackers have the keys to the kingdom, so to speak. Hopefully, by moving away from passwords that are complicated and difficult to remember, we can be more secure online,” says Knecht. BHB