Stay cyber secure – 6 ways to strengthen your passwords against cyber attacks
At a glance (2 minute read)
- A cyber security breach can cause financial loss and damage to reputation.
- Using multiple types of characters, passphrases, avoiding personal information, using a password manager, and enabling two-factor authentication all help prevent hacking.
A cyber security breach can not only be a headache, it can cost you thousands of dollars and negatively impact your reputation.
In 2020, cyber criminals in our Board area were able to hack members’ email addresses, log into their lockbox accounts, and gain access to homes listed for sale.
A strong password is your first line of defense against attacks like this. Here are six ways you can strengthen your current password to keep cyber criminals out.
1. Use variety in your passwords
The strongest passwords are more than eight characters and contain letters, numbers, and characters.
Use unique passwords - don’t reuse passwords or add special characters to existing passwords.
2. Use passphrases
Strong passwords are useless if you don’t remember them. Cyber security experts are now recommending you use passphrases – a complete sentence rather than a single word.
This should help increase the number of characters, while making it both easier to remember and harder for hackers to guess.
3. Don’t use personal or obvious information
Your social media presence may help with marketing, but it can expose personal information that could help cyber criminals guess your password.
It’s important not to use any information that someone could easily learn about you in your passwords.
These include your name, email address, phone number, birth date, high school, your pet’s name, or any other information someone could learn about you.
4. Use one password per account
It might be easier to remember just one password and use it for all of your accounts, but it also makes it much easier for cyber criminals.
If they hack one of your accounts, they now have access to them all.
5. Use a password manager
Remembering many strong passphrases is difficult. That’s why there are many password manager services available, from Google Password Manager, to 1Password, to iCloud Keychain.
The Board’s login page is now compatible with password managers.
6. Use multi-factor authentication
When available, multi-factor authentication (MFA) offers an extra layer of security that can prevent your accounts from being hacked even if the cyber criminal has your password.
MFA requires a separate method of verification before you can log in to your account, whether that’s a confirmation text message, or a randomly generated code in a separate app.
