Passwords are the gateway of your digital Identity but remembering them is terribly difficult due to the variety of apps and sites we use. Passwords should be long with a mix of letters numbers and symbols and should not be easily guessable. We’re often tempted to set easy-to-remember passwords for simplicity which is not a safe practice. Here are 5 simple things you should consider before setting up a new password with which your new password will be strong, unique, and secure yet easy for you to memorize.
1. Never use the same password on multiple platforms.
Data breaches have been some sort of normal these days even in big corporations. The breach exposes millions of user accounts and passwords from that particular site You risk your entire digital Identity if you’ve used the same password everywhere. That being the reason it is always advisable to use different passwords on different sites.
2. Avoid using your personal info as a password
Many of us have a bad habit of using our personal information like name, phone number, or pet name as passwords. You should also avoid using birthdays, anniversary dates, or anything specific as passwords. Using your publicly available information in the form of a password is very risky as you can be a victim of social engineering and hacker can guess your password based on your publicly available information.
3. 8 characters is a starting point
We’re often advised to use longer passwords as the more lengthy the password is hard it is to hack. Many of us think passwords of 6-8 characters are long but actually, 8 characters are the starting point of long passwords. A simple 8 character password can be hacked by a moderately architected GPU cracker within minutes.
4. Use password manager
Using a password manager can make managing your passwords a lot easier. There are plenty of free password managers in the market which are pretty decent. With them, you don’t have to remember each and every password and you can access your passwords anytime, anywhere as long as you have your single master password.
5. Check recovery
You should always check the recovery options and set up a recovery method. Using the recovery feature lets you change your account even if you forget your password at any point in time. You can use your phone number as a recovery option or use any third-party apps but be sure to consider these things before setting up 2FA.
It is always hard to balance between what makes a good password and something you can easily remember. An easy-to-remember password makes an account less secure for which you should always consider these above things.
