Your passwords go hand in hand with your privacy. With your login credentials, a hacker, an ex, a stalker, or a co-worker, can put your financial and physical security at risk. So, what steps can you take to secure your login credentials?
Strong passwords are harder to guess
The more complex your password, the more challenging it is to guess. Think of a long password that carries uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as some symbols and numbers. It’s also best to avoid using your birthday or common strings of letters in your password.
Like your passwords, the answers to your password recovery questions should also be challenging to guess. For example, avoid secret questions like: “What is your favorite color?”
Don’t write your password on a sticky note
Sophisticated passwords are something of a double-edged sword; not only are they harder for others to crack, but they’re harder for you to remember. Still, writing your password on a sticky note and sticking it under your desk is a bad idea. Instead, try a password manager.
Practice safety on shared computers and devices
Never save your password on a shared machine. Likewise, log out of all your accounts whenever your computer session ends. You should also log out of your web browsers as they tend to save passwords nowadays.
Similarly, don’t store your passwords on websites, even if it’s convenient. Remember, websites are run on computers, and computers can be compromised, resulting in consumer data breaches.
Change your passwords after a breakup.
Look, you should change your passwords regularly anyway. But you should certainly change all of them after a breakup, even if the relationship ended amicably. Your ex-partner may know your password and find it irresistible to spy on you.
Shield yourself from spyware
Spyware is malicious software that can steal your sensitive information, like your usernames and passwords. Here are some different types of spyware:
Follow these steps to protect yourself from different kinds of spyware:
Open emails carefully
That email offering you a time-sensitive deep discount on those gorgeous shoes? It could be a phishing attack. A phishing email is a fake email that hackers employ to trick you into downloading malware like spyware or revealing your confidential information. For example, a fake email from a bank may ask you for your username and password to process a fraud alert.
Phishing emails can also send you to websites designed to rob your password. The website may look like your favorite ecommerce platform, but hackers design its checkout page to steal your data. Check websites for the padlock sign, grammatical mistakes, unusual images to see if they’re fake. You can also look them up on consumer review websites for authentication.
Your passwords are the digital keys to your privacy. Secure them by adopting safer habits on the Internet and using top cybersecurity software and a highly rated password manager.