Today, Thursday 2 May, we celebrate the ‘World Password Day‘, an anniversary which aims to promote best practices in terms of safety. Passwords are the first line of defense against cybercriminals and it is therefore essential to ensure they are as secure as possible. A common mistake people make is using the same password for all their accounts. In fact, an online survey by Google found that at least 65% of people use identical passwords on multiple sites, if not on all. This means that passwords can be easily cracked and it is interesting to note that, according to the ‘Verizon data leak investigations report’, compromised passwords are responsible for 81% of data leaks linked to criminal activity.
But here are the 10 tips and tricks by Veronica Pace, head of marketing Trend Micro Italia to create strong passwords.
1. Do not use letters and numbers in sequence (for example, qwerty, abcde, 12345, asdf). They are too common and easy to guess. 2. Never use your date of birth as a password. It’s easy to remember, but it also makes a criminal’s job easier, especially if this information is available online. 3. Combine letters, numbers and symbols (e.g. $, %, !) to form a password of at least eight characters. The presence of seemingly random combinations will make the password more difficult to crack.
4. Avoid using your own name as a password. Fortunately, some websites are able to detect it and prevent its use. 5. Do not create a password that contains personal information, because cybercriminals can find them online. 6. Avoid using too common passwords, such as P@$$w0rd, password, 1234567890, ioveyou, etc. 7. Stop reusing passwords. Each password created must be unique 8. Strong passwords can also be long passphrases in which several words are combined into a long string of characters (e.g. umbrellainspiaggiapiove, sottoacetoacaso). It is important to also add numbers and symbols 9. Avoid changing just one character each time that the password is updated (e.g. MyG@laxyPassw0rd01, MyG@laxyPassw0rd02, MyG@laxyPassw0rd03) 10. Use a password generator and a password manager. Do not write passwords in notebooks or on sticky notes.