When it comes to your finances, password protection is essential to keeping your personal information secure. Without a strong password you put yourself at risk for fraud. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when managing your passwords for online accounts.
Only You Should Know Your Password
Never share your password with another person. Similarly, never keep your passwords in a file or folder in your computer. Pay close attention to the string of letters, numbers and special characters to see how strong of a password you actually use, and update your password frequently.
How to Create a Strong Password
In order to create a strong password to keep your data secure, make sure:
- Your passwords are longer than eight characters, hard to guess and contain a variety of characters, numbers and special symbols.
- Avoid common words and character sequences.
- Do not use an old password and simply add a letter, number or symbol.
- Make sure that any new password you create is completely different from a previous password.
- Use a combination of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers and symbols.
- Special characters can include keyboard characters such as periods, brackets, underscores and backslashes.
The longer and more varied your password, the better you can protect your online account.
How Apps are Keeping Your Information Safe
Most applications or websites that save your username and password will remind you and require you to change your password periodically. This feature helps to keep your information safe before a breach can occur of your password.
Some applications even use Two-Factor Authentication, a security safeguard that requires you to enter a second piece of information that only you have. Safety features like these enable the user to feel secure in knowing their data is not easily accessible to others.
Passwords Not to Use
According to an article published in Forbes Magazine, many people have terrible passwords.
Here are the top 10 worst passwords in 2019:
- 12345
- 123456
- 123456789
- test1
- password
- 12345678
- zinch
- g czechout
- asdf
- qwerty
Utilize Password Managers
Password managers are programs that store your usernames and other important information in what's known as a “master vault.” You will need to create and remember the password to access your vault. After creating your vault password, you won’t have to worry about remembering all of the others. Consider using one of the most common password managers such as LastPass, Dashlane or NordPass to keep track of your passwords.
Protect yourself today by updating your password in Online Banking.
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