We live in a password-driven world. We are required to create a password for every account that we make online. They provide the first line of defense against hackers and malicious software.
Security experts often advise us to use strong passwords at all times. But what qualifies as a strong password?
Here are 4 tips for creating an unbreakable password.
Minimum of 12 characters
While it’s fine to use an 8-character password, we’d like to stress the importance of using a long password. Longer passwords are much harder to crack. Go for passwords with at least 12 characters.
Mix it up
To make the password harder to crack, use a mix of different types of characters. Include capital letters, lower-case letters, numbers, symbols and punctuations. Instead of bighouse, try BigH0use$123.
Avoid common passwords
Avoid using places, names, birthdays, dates and dictionary words as password. A lot of people use the name of their kids or pets, anniversary date, city of birth, favorite team or even their car license plates as their password. Guess what? That’s not a strong password, even if you combine them with numbers. Why? It’s because these are the types of information that hackers would want to know first. If you do use any of these as your password, it would only take a few minutes before they gain access to your accounts.
Use different passwords
Why would you use a different password for different accounts when you can easily type in your favorite password? The answer is simple. If your password gets cracked, then the person will now have access to all your accounts – email, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, PayPal, bank accounts etc. You can say goodbye to your funds in an instant. Do yourself a favor and use a different password for every account.
Add an extra layer of protection
Add an extra layer of protection by enabling 2-step verification. Here, users are required to type in their username and password, along with the code that will be sent to their mobile phone. So even if the hacker gets a hold of your username and password, he still can’t access your account because he doesn’t have your phone.
For additional tips and information on data security, contact our licensing experts at Royal. We specialize in affordable, legal oem and retail software sales and support. For more information, call us Monday-Friday at 1-877-292-7712.