World Password Day: Common Password Mistakes And How To Create Strong Passwords

Today May 5 is the first Thursday in the 5^th month of the year and as it is done annually, the first Thursday of every May is World Password Day. It therefore connotes that today is celebrated globally as the day of passwords and it is on the aegis of this that this article focuses on how to protect your passwords from compromise, some common password mistakes you may make and tips on how to create strong passwords.

Before we go into the common mistakes, we need to know the essence of having a strong password.

A lot of people may wonder the importance of having a strong password or what a strong password means. Let’s dissect it.

A strong password is a kind of password that is designed in such a way that it will be hard for another person or program to guess. Since the intention and purpose of a password is to make sure that only the user or authorized person can access a data or resource, a password should be strong and not easy to guess or else one is susceptible to a cybersecurity risk.

You need a strong password in all your logins even if the website are 100 percent secure because  there is always a possibility of someone trying to access or seal your data or information in a process known as hacking. Having a strong password will to a very large extent defend your accounts and private information from hackers.

Having now known the importance of creating a strong password, we should now analyse some tips for creating strong passwords.

Having given reasons why a strong password is one that’s easy for you to remember but difficult for others to guess, let’s look at very important things to consider when creating a password.

• Don’t make the mistake of using personal data like your name, birthday, user name, or email address. Someone who knows this set of personal information can easily guess this and get your information compromised, especially as this type of information is often publicly available.
• Make use of a longer password. Even though most sites where you need to login need this as a condition to create an account, there is the need to have this in your general consciousness. Make sure you password is at least six characters long and it is advisable to make it longer for extra security.
• Resist the temptation to use the same password for your different accounts. It is understandable that people stick to one password for series of accounts online so that they can remember, this is dangerous!. For example, if someone by chance gets to know the password for one of your accounts, it means all of your other accounts will be vulnerable to compromise.
• It is advisable when creating passwords that you include numbers, symbols, and both uppercase and lowercase letters.
• If possible, avoid using very common words that can be easily linked with you or your organization, For example, if you work with Pepsi and your name is Richard, do not use Richardpepsi as your password as someone can guess that.

Other common password mistakes

The idea is not to make someone close to you or a random hacker guess the characters of your password and it is thus expedient to note that using passwords based on family names, hobbies, or just a simple pattern can make the job easier for a potential hacker. Please note that a hacker can either be a professional one or a nosy neighbor, friend or even family. While these types of passwords are easy to remember, they’re also some of the least secure. Let’s take a look at some of the most common password mistakes and how to fix them. Using personal information like combining the names of your kids and ages might look like an easy way out but it can still be guessed. If you must use this information, make sure you insert symbols, uppercase letters, and a more random order.  If you want to use  the name of your kids for example, you can combine  their characters with symbols, italics, upper case and lower case in  between. For example, your son name is Paul and your daughter’s name is Miranda, you can use paULmiR@ndak!ds as password. It would be almost impossible for that nosy neighbor or family member to get that.

And please remember to create a unique password for each of your online accounts, you do not need to use same paULmiR@ndak!ds for both your LetsChat login  and your Facebook login, flip them.

To be on a very safe side, use a password generator.

A password generator is a software tool that helps creates random or customized passwords for users. The advantage of a password generator is that it helps users create stronger passwords that provide greater security for a given type of access.  A password generator will produce complex/strong passwords with combinations of numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, and special characters such as braces, asterisks, slashes, etc. Ideally a password generated from a password generator looks like this: #st$jup&yl or something like #eV$pIg&qf.

Use password managers to securely store your passwords online:

A password manager is a software application that helps store and manage online credentials. These passwords are mainly stored in an encrypted database locked behind a master password.” Password managers will remember and enter your password on different websites, an indication that you won’t need to remember longer passwords. Even though password managers can be hacked too in a case of sophisticated hacking, they have a good overall track record of securing user data. Some of the advantages of using password manager includes: Helping to save your time, You not needing to memorize all your passwords anymore, their ability to auto-generate highly secure passwords for you, they alert you to a phishing site, protect against identity theft and so on.

Some notable password managers are: LastPass, 1Password, and Google Chrome’s password manager.

TechBooky Note: A good, strong and secure password gives your data an additional level of security and makes your actions online confidential, please practice these tips and some other tips when creating your password to keep your online information safe and secure.

Happy World Password Day!