How good are your passwords?

We now use passwords more regularly than ever before. Just think of how many different applications and services require a password. Email, online banking, revenue & social services, social media, Netflix, eBay and Amazon to name a few.

Each one of these requires a unique password, did you know that, or are you using the same password for some or most of these services?

Firstly, it is recommended to use a different password for different accounts, I would recommend having different email address for certain services as well as different passwords.

When you think about it, if a hacker discovers your email and password for say Facebook, the chances are you may have used those same login details for other accounts like PayPal or Amazon. It wouldn’t take them very long to go through several different services until they get a hit!

Secondly, humans find it hard to remember a string of numbers and characters such as P@55w04d, however password cracking algorithms find them easy to break. It is suggested that we use phrases such as “ActionsSpeakLouderThanWords” or “back2theDrawingBoard”. The longer and the less common the phrase, the harder it is to crack.

Lastly, it is also recommended that we should change our passwords regularly, again this is a difficult task for most people as we can get a bit lazy.

All is not lost, there are several applications such as LastPass, keeper and True Key, which will help you organise your passwords. If you think you may have been hacked you can check Have I been Pwned to see if your security has been breached.