Password Protection
Hackers are aware that people use the same or similar passwords for multiple accounts. If your banking password, Amazon password, and email password are the same, then a vulnerability in one site can put others at risk.
What makes a password easy to guess?
Once hackers acquire a list of email addresses from a data breach, they already have a good start. From there, they simply have to pick a website of their choice and try the enlisted emails with the most popular passwords. There are chances of getting into quite a few accounts.
To avoid your account from getting hacked, here’s a list of worst passwords you should avoid:
- Avoid using 123456, the most common of all passwords.
- Switching a letter to a symbol like p@ssw0rd! too is an obvious trick that hackers know. Password cracking programs contain every type of these combinations in every language.
- Use something obscure and avoid using names of your favourite sports team or pop culture references.
- Using single words like sunshine or monkey and adding a number or punctuation at the end, doesn’t make for a strong password. Instead, use a phrase or sentence to make your password stronger.
- Avoid using common patters like 111111, abc123 or 654321.
What makes a password strong?
- Combining unrelated words.
- Using an entire phrase and changing some of the letters to special letters and numbers.
- Use a combination of upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers.
- The longer your password, the stronger it is.
- Use different passwords for every account.