Celebrate World Password Day 2019 With a Stronger Password
Published on May 2, 2019
- Today is a day to remind you of the importance of the strength of the passwords you’re using.
- Passwords are increasingly important in our lives, and progressively more targeted by criminals.
- Most people still prefer a weak and easier to remember passwords, often just one for their entire online presence.
This year’s “World Password Day” is on May 2, and you should welcome this as another chance to consider the strength and diversity of the passwords you’re using. The password day serves more like a reminder rather than a celebration, allowing us to contemplate, even shortly, the critical role that passwords play in our modern lives. We use them to access our bank accounts, social networks, web forums, collaboration platforms, and many more. This means that every person has to juggle with dozens of passwords, used to help us authenticate ourselves on multiple different portals.
Passwords are our keys to open the door to our own private rooms on various online platforms, and unlike what happens in the real world, using a secure and robust key won’t cost more than a common and insecure key. However, strong passwords are harder to remember, so many people out there prefer to use simpler passwords, or even to use a single password across multiple platforms. Simple passwords are easy for hackers to crack through brute force attacks or dictionary attacks, and if these passwords are used on other platforms as well, the cybercriminals will be able to take over the insecure accounts through credential stuffing attacks.
Our recent post on the most hacked passwords out there clearly shows that the majority of internet users are not opting for a truly strong password. But what is a strong password exactly? Generally speaking, a strong password is one that consists of 16 or more characters, contains uppercase and lowercase letters, contains at least one number and one special character, and doesn’t contain whole words. For example, this would be a relatively strong password: “M0c9_atrm{!nH#7Ur”. But how would someone remember this password and another dozen of similarly complex ones?
The answer is you don’t have to. By using a password manager helps you store all your passwords in one place, automatically fill out the login forms on the web platforms, and keep things under your control with only a master passphrase required. With the number of website breaches that happen on a daily basis, user login credentials are on sale on darknet marketplaces or published in the millions. People should take steps to prevent access to their accounts by taking proactive action, changing your passwords often, using two-factor authentication when possible, and keeping your AV tools up to date.
Are you planning to take a new approach on how you handle passwords today? How will you celebrate World Password Day 2019? Let us know in the comments down below, and help us spread the word by sharing this post through our socials, on Facebook and Twitter.