Combines letters, numbers, and symbol characters within the password. This article was edited by Arthur Gies and Mark Smirniotis. A strong password has the following characteristics: Is at least eight characters long. Were often told that the passwords to access our online accounts should be really strong, and not to use them anywhere else. If you’ve been reusing the same handful of passwords over the years, you should change your platform-specific passwords (such as those for Google, Apple, Facebook, or Microsoft) as well as your email, social media, and bank account logins right away. Each time you log in to a site, especially a site where you’ve been reusing a password, spend an extra minute to change your login credentials. (You can always use a password generator without a password manager account.)Īfter choosing a password manager, spend the next few weeks changing all your passwords as you browse the web. Keep it safe-never carry it with you out of the house-and use a different password everywhere. Many developers of password managers submit their software to third parties for security assessments, which helps ensure that the companies are honest about their security and privacy claims.īut if you have only a handful of online accounts, if you’re not worried about anyone in your house logging in to your personal accounts, or if you don’t travel much, there’s nothing wrong with a pen-and-paper list. Depending on the website or app, creating a strong password and saving it to iCloud Keychain usually consists of. We think the usability is worth the trade-off, and most password managers-including the ones we recommend-do everything they can to make a data breach improbable. Create a strong password for a new account. Using a password manager requires some level of trust, and it’s theoretically possible that a password manager could suffer some sort of data breach. You can then access that password through the password manager software on all your devices, including your other computers, your tablet, or your phone. When you visit a site to create or change a password, the password manager suggests a password (usually something like JKk8&*jasdl4+&) and then stores it so you don’t have to remember it. A password manager does two things: It creates, and then stores, unique passwords. Uppercase letters Lowercase letters Numbers Symbols. Most people find that a password manager offers the best way to do that. Require all passwords to include at least one of all of these characters. The solution to this problem is to use a different, hard-to-guess password for every account. If Target suffers a data breach that includes your password, your Gmail account password is also compromised in turn. Let’s say, for example, that you’re using the same password for Target’s website and for Gmail. Reusing passwords across different services increases the likelihood of malicious actors gaining access to your other accounts. For more information, see our complete Simple Online Security series. This is just one step in a series created to help anyone improve their online security regardless of their technical knowledge.
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