Strong passwords are essential these days, as hackers have become smarter and found new ways to steal our precious passwords. In the past, we’ve seen that security researchers have discovered a large numbers of hacked passwords for popular websites posted on the Internet. So this means that your password is not just known to the hacker, but the entire world.
So how do you stay safe from such invisible threats online? Our password is the first line of defense and that’s why it is important that we use strong passwords. But many times users complain that if they set strong passwords, then they’re not able to remember it. But that’s not all; some people also use very obvious passwords such as 123456, 123456789, abcdefg, and sometimes even the inexcusable word “password” is used as a password. These definitely don’t fall in the strong password category, so if you’re using anything in spitting distance of those, let us help you learn how to create strong, but at the same time easy-to-remember passwords.
Tip #1: Use Passphrases
Passphrases you say? These are short sentences that usually describe something about your life or anything that’s easy to remember by you. For example; “I moved to New York in 2011.” Now, from this sentence, pick up the first letter from every word, and also make sure to include upper and lower case, and numbers.
With the above method, the password would be: “ImtNYi2011.” Now that’s a strong password which includes upper and lower case letters as well as numbers. This password is easy to remember by you, but hard for others.
Tip #2: Use two-factor authentication whenever possible
On websites that support two-factor authentication, don’t forget to enable it for your account.
For those who don’t know, two-factor authentication is also known as two-step authentication, where you need to use more than one form of authentication to access your account. For example, apart from the normal username and password that you use, you’ll also need to have your mobile device ready in order to log-in to the website. Some popular sites which support two-factor authentication are: Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Evernote, Dropbox and more.
Tip #3: Use password managers
Although not exactly a tip, this is worth mentioning. You can use password managers like Lastpass, Keepass, 1password, etc and with it, you can use strong passwords on every site. For example; if I am using Lastpass, then I would set a really strong password for my Gmail because I don’t have to remember that password (as Lastpass remembers the password for me).
If you haven’t tried any password manager yets, now is the perfect time to do so.
