Shutterstock©With scams and hacking getting more and more advanced, it’s important that we’re keeping our technology secure with a good password. A recent survey from Uswitch.com has revealed many of us are making the same mistakes. So, they’re sharing their tips with us.
Today, May 5th, is World Password Day so now is a good time to share some dos and don’ts.
Do
- Spell out a memorable phrase using a mix of numbers, symbols and acronyms. For example: $up3rS4f34CC0unt! (super safe account).
- Have a different password like this for every site.
- Use your keyboard as a canvas to draw or write something memorable to you.
- Use a password manager if you think you won’t remember them.
- Make it as long as you can and use lowercase, uppercase, numbers and symbols in every password.
- Change them regularly.
Don’t
- Don’t write your passwords down. Not paper, email, anywhere.
- Don’t reuse the same password across accounts.
- Don’t use loved ones’ names.
- Don’t use obvious keyboard sequences. For example, 123456, qwerty.
- Don’t tell them to anyone!
USwitch’s survey revealed that a quarter of people still write their passwords down. And one in three people include their birth name, even more include a pet’s name.
Because more of our lives are online, it’s important we’re protecting our data as much as possible!
Jacqueline Munro I am the Digital Content Editor at "The People's Friend", looking after our website, social media channels and podcast.
