It is not uncommon for naive internet users to use weak passwords, such as using a word, phrase or name that is in the English Dictionary which are easily guessed by all sorts of nefarious internet hackers. What usually happens is this:
(1) These people use this same weak password for all their accounts.
(2) Eventually a hacker gets into such an account as Yahoo or Gmail and now has access to the account Contacts, which is then used to send emails to all these contacts from this person’s account which is recommending viagra or some porn site to the recipient. The recipient of such an email then replies to the sender and asks, ‘Why did you send me this?” Ouch!
And if you used the same password for your online bank account, I don’t even have to tell you the pain this causes. Thankfully most banks require strong passwords and other safeguards so that a hacker can’t get in.
What you should know is how to make a strong password. Gmail has recommendations on this. Yahoo also offers advice. So does Wikipedia. Just understand that a strong password contains different letters, upper and lower case, numbers, and other symbols and is in no logical order. Very difficult to guess and the odds of hacking a strong password is much less than using a word, name or phrase that hackers easily guess.
The other important thing to do is never use the same password on multiple sites. It doesn’t take rocket science to figure out why, since if your password is hacked, why would you let hackers also go to your other sites if you used the same password? So make different strong passwords for each site you access. So, immediately you say, how can I keep track of all this? There are a number of solutions but for those who use Apple the recommendation is iCloud Keychain.
iCloud Keychain offers a strong password generator and keeps a record of all the sites you go and stores them on the iCloud for all your devices. As of OS X 10.9 Mavericks and iOS 7.0.3, iCloud Keychain keeps these account credentials, along with credit card numbers and other personal information (including your account settings for email, contacts, calendars, and social networking services) in sync across your Macs and iOS devices automatically and securely encrypted.The setup process for iCloud Keychain is surprisingly involved, and has a couple of less-than-obvious steps. However, once you’ve done this for each of your devices, iCloud Keychain syncs invisibly in the background, just like other iCloud data, and normally requires no manual intervention. To learn tips on how to set up iCloud Keychain read this excellent article at MacWorld.
We recommend you set up two-step verification for your email login on the web, i.e., Gmail two-step verification. Connectech can help you set this up and make your email account secure.Connectech recommends that you use either iCloud Keychain, 1Password or some other strong password generator, such as LastPass or use different, difficult strong passwords for each site you access online. You can do this with a password generator of your choice if you desire to do this one at a time.
Watch this video by Google on how what you should know about strong passwords:
We have other helpful posts about passwords:
The Importance Of Password Security
Can A Password Manager Help You Be More Secure?
The Benefits of Using Password Management Tools in Your Business
If You’re Using Any Of These Passwords, Stop
Would Your Employees Sell Company Passwords For Less Than $1000?
Frequent Password Changes May Compromise Security
Are You Sharing Your Passwords?
Seriously – If 123456 Is Your Password, Change It Now!