One of the best ways to protect yourself from hackers is by making sure your passwords are iron-clad. Hackers make a living out of figuring out passwords, and it won’t be hard to crack yours if you aren’t doing everything you can to keep them secure. Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy Expert Sam Dawson at ProPrivacy spoke to SHEFinds.com about the dangerous password mistakes you should never make. The sooner you ban these from your online life, the safer your accounts will be.
Recycling Passwords
Recycling the same old passwords is by far the biggest cause of identity theft, according to Dawson. “When you reuse passwords, your security is only as strong as the weakest service you use it for,” Dawson says. “All it takes is one website that doesn’t encrypt your passwords properly to be hacked, and suddenly that hacker has the master key to your whole internet life. This may have even happened to you already. Using haveIbeenpwned, you can check through thousands of leaked databases to see if one of your passwords is out on the net for anyone to see.”
Putting Your Personal Life In Your Password
In a nutshell: don’t use your birth year as your pin. “Don’t use the name of your favorite pet that you post about on Facebook as your Facebook password,” Dawson advises. “Don’t use your middle name typed in ‘l33t sp34k’ if you work in the tech industry. Hackers spend all day researching human psychology and password trends. The more of your life you put into your password, the more likely it is someone can spend an obsessive day or two stalking your social media and trying common variations until it works. This is the same for password recovery services that only rely on questions about your life. You’d be surprised how many of you friends know your birth date, where you were born, and your mother’s maiden name.”
Not Keeping Track Of Multiple Passwords
Given that you should use multiple passwords, Dawson agrees that it can be very easy to be lazy about it. “It’s hard to keep track of thirty plus different passwords for all the services you use,” Dawson says,. “It’s extremely likely you’ll forget one you haven’t logged into for months, reset it, and out of frustration fall into mistake #1. Don’t do this - use a secure password manager instead. If you absolutely have to write them down, treat your password book like you would your passport or your bank card. Keep it secure. Don’t leave it lying around. If you’re really worried, buy a safe.”
Not Using 2-Factor Authentication
You can never be too safe — and that’s where 2-factor authentication comes in. “In the absolute worst case scenario, a hacker will still need access to your phone or a hardware dongle or whichever device your security policy trusts,” Dawson says. “Yes, it’s annoying to have to check your phone when you want to log in. I, personally, hate it. Do it anyway. When you find out one day someone tried to log into your PayPal from halfway around the world but they were defeated by not having access to the SMS auth sent to your phone, you’ll forgive all those annoying moments lost to finding your phone when you’re in the middle of setting up online payments.”
