How secure are your passwords???? Let’s be honest, most of us have passwords that aren’t really secure and probably haven’t been changed in a while.
WAIT! Before you skip the rest of this article . . . We all agree that password management is a hassle, but give yourself a couple more minutes to see if you can quickly and easily tighten up some of your password security.
Start simple:
- Choose one account that you feel needs a secure password.
- Create a unique password
- Ideally the password is randomly generated. Use a generator like Norton’s Password Generator (https://my.norton.com/extspa/passwordmanager?path=pwd-gen)
- If random isn’t your idea of easy to remember, at least consider using a sentence instead of a word for your password. For example:
- Don’t use Dog as a password, instead use a sentence:
- TheFoxJumpedOverTheLazyDog
- Now change out some of the letters for numbers (Zero for “o”, and 3 for “e”)
- Th3F0xJump3d0v3rTh3LazyD0g
- Add a special character (@ for “a”)
- Th3F0xJump3d0v3rTh3L@zyD0g
- Don’t use Dog as a password, instead use a sentence:
- Don’t reuse the password for any other site
Now the password is a bit more secure. Is it ideal? No. Is it better than a static, one-word password? Yes. Will it be easier to remember than a randomly generate password? Yes.
If you do nothing else about your passwords, please occasionally change them.
Remember: The best passwords are randomly generated and changed often.
Final Note: Please, please, please don’t use the above password for any of your accounts.