We recommend watching this video tutorial so you can see Password Security in action.
You can also read our written tutorial below.
There are 5 elements that can help your passwords be more secure and harder to crack by attackers. You need to take your passwords to L.U.N.C.H. – Long, Unique, No one else knows, Complex, and Hard to Guess.
How Long Should Your Password be?
Well, technically it should be as long as possible. But let’s look and see how long certain length passwords take. For instance, an eight-character password will only take ten seconds to crack.
But the longer we make our passwords, the longer it takes hackers to get in. So a twelve-character password will take over 200 days to crack. A 16 character password takes even longer with 10,000 centuries (give or take a couple of centuries). We recommend you make your passwords as long as possible with a bare minimum of twelve characters.
Make Your Passwords Unique.
Step 1) Stop using the same password for everything.
I know, it’s easy to use your pet’s name and your birthday for every single password, but we have to stop doing that. You should actually never use the same password for any account more than once. Why? Because if a hacker gets into one of your accounts and compromises it, they will use that login and that password for a lot of other accounts.
So let’s say a hacker gets into your email. They will use that password and that email for your Facebook account, for your banking account, for your Spotify account. So we need to be using unique, very different passwords for each and every single one of our accounts.
No-one Else Should know Your passwords.
You should never tell anyone your password, and nobody should be asking for your password ever – especially for work accounts. Your boss does not need your password. Your IT definitely doesn’t need your password. If they’re asking for your password, that is a major red flag that something is not right.
You should really just get in the habit of never sharing any passwords. Yes, even your Netflix accounts. You really shouldn’t be sharing passwords to that, either.
Passwords Need to be Complex.
There are four elements that we need to make sure all passwords have: uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.
Yes, you really should have a combination of all four of those things. I know some logins don’t require you to have symbols, but it really makes your passwords so much more secure if you do. Why do you need all of these four things? Well, the more complex and the more complicated your passwords are, the harder they are to crack.
So if you have symbols and you have numbers and you have uppercase and lowercase letters, all of these things make it exponentially harder for hackers to get into. For instance, let’s look at an eight-character length password: it only takes ten seconds for that password to be cracked. But if you have uppercase letters lowercase letters and numbers, you’re already up to 14 minutes for that password to be cracked. So just by adding numbers, you already have such a more secure password. So imagine what happens if you also add symbols and you also make it a little bit longer. The goal here is to make it as hard as possible for hackers to get into your account.
Make Your Passwords Hard to Guess.
Never ever use any personal information that could be out on the internet or even on Facebook. Malicious Actors will look at social media accounts to find clues to what your password could be. That means no important dates, such as anniversaries or birthdays or your Social Security number, even the last four digits. Please don’t put that in a password. Also, never use any names of loved ones, or pets, or your favorite sports team, or your favorite color. Those also are very easy to figure out online. Honestly, a good rule of thumb is that the uglier your password is, the better. It should be random numbers and letters and symbols and words. It shouldn’t really make any sense.
And if you’re having a hard time thinking of how to make an ugly password…Thankfully, there are options online. There are password generators like the one from LastPass. It’ll make a long, unique, really complex, really gross-looking password that you can then copy and use for whatever account you need. And now you’re probably thinking, Well, how am I going to remember these really complex, long, gross, ugly passwords? Thanks for watching!
