On World Password Day, Here’s How Users Can Protect Their Accounts

On World Password day, here are some useful tips to create strong passwords that will be difficult to hack.

Reusing login names and passwords is a significant risk.   

Photo Courtesy: Mihai Simonia/Shutterstock.com

With every passing minute, the more digital accounts we sign up to, the more passwords we have to remember. But most users don’t do that, instead they use the same password for multiple accounts.

On 2 May, World Password Day, it’s important to reiterate the impact of a strong password, making sure hackers are not able to access your system, and get hold of data that can be important.

Here’s a look at some of the methods which will help you in keeping accounts safe.

Create Strong Passwords

There’s no rocket science behind creating a password that would be hard to break through. Use of special characters like #, _, or even + ensures there is a surprise element for the hacker to crack.

Then you can also have characters in uppercase, and even mix it with lower case in between. For instance, a password like PaSSw0rd#! might keep you safer than just merely putting it as password.

Sophos has mentioned which passwords are most vulnerable.(Photo: Canva)

Use Two-Factor Authentication

Using only passwords are not as safe as using two-factor authentication (2FA). With 2FA there’s added sense of comfort for anyone. Most security experts would recommend using it, especially for social media accounts.

2FA requires you to take a second step each time you sign in to your account on top of your username and password.

For everything else, including your bank transactions, you already have this set up by default.

Password Managers to the Rescue

Google’s Chrome browser has a built-in option. Password managers are there to tokenise your password, which means every time you login to an account, the tool helps you enter without asking or knowing your password. You also have third-party password managers that can be of assistance with this.