Better Passwords for Better Cybersecurity: Password Managers and Strong Passwords
In today’s world, cybersecurity and protecting your information online has never been more important. One of the first ways to do this is to create strong passwords that you can remember. According to an article from How To Geek, duplicating passwords and using patterns is very dangerous. This is why it’s important to use a password manager, which can create strong passwords and remember them for you.
A strong password should have at least 12 characters incorporating numbers, symbols, and capital letters to best protect you. How To Geek gives a good example of how to make a memorable password. From the article:
“You might find it easier to remember a sentence like ‘The first house I ever lived in was 613 Fake Street. Rent was $400 per month.’ You can turn that sentence into a password by using the first digits of each word. The password would become TfhIeliw613FS.Rw$4pm. This is a strong password at 21 digits.”
Hikvision also has several password security tips provided by Vice President of Global Information Security, Chuck Davis. These password tips include:
- Enable multi-factor authentication (MFA) everywhere you can. This will protect your account even if an attacker gets your password. MFA adds two or more pieces of verifiable evidence or “factors” to the authentication process, vastly reducing the chances of an account being accessed by the wrong person.
- Never reuse passwords. Reusing passwords increases the chances that your account will be compromised in a credential-stuffing attack.
- Sign up for “Have I Been Pwned?” so you get alerted if your email address shows up in a data breach. This is a free service that often alerts you of a breach before the vendor or website contacts you.
- Use a Password Manager. Since our passwords should be long and unique, it’s unreasonable to expect anyone to remember all of the passwords that an average person must use. Using a password manager will relieve you of that burden because you can store all of your passwords in the password manager, and you won’t have to remember any of them.
- Use Passkeys. Passkeys are a new way to sign into apps and websites that are easier than passwords. They are resistant to attacks such as phishing and enable users to log in with a fingerprint, a face scan, or a screen lock PIN. FIDO Alliance, Apple, Microsoft, and Google have all rolled out passkey options.
Learn more about cybersecurity in our online cybersecurity center.