A Lesson on Password Security 🔒

I have a few tips I would like to share today on the subject of password security.

It is getting more and more easier for hackers to gain illegal access to your computers,social media accounts, and even online bank accounts. So it is vital that you practice strong password security these days.

Tip #1

Use passphrases instead of passwords!
Using a passphrase instead of a password benefits you in two ways, for one it is easier to remember a phrase then some made up combination of letters and numbers, and two it is actually way harder for hackers software to guess it.

For example:
If you password is : Mom123 (obviously very weak password)
You should instead have a passphrase like this: MyMom1sTheBest1nTheWorld

This can actually be much easier for you to remember and I threw in the extra precautions of replacing I's with 1's which gets you passed most websites ; you must have at least one number, and also you can use capital letters for the beginning of each word (or the end of each word if you think you can remember that)

There is a site that you can enter password ideas and it'll tell you how long it would take for a hacker to guess that password, try it for yourself : https://howsecureismypassword.net/

You'll notice that passphrases will take substantially more time to crack.

Tip #2

Keep physical copies of passwords

This might seem obvious to some, but it is much less likely that your home will be robbed and a sheet of paper in your lock box be stolen with your passwords on them, then a hacker obtaining remote access to your computer where they simply double click the notepad saved on your desktop titled "My Passwords"

Hopefully we have come a little bit further from that, but you'd be surprised how many people still save all of their passwords unencrypted on their computers for anyone to come along and view.

Bonus Tip: Instead of writing down your actual passwords on that piece of paper, you should instead write hints that only you can understand. Example Password=Dog, on your paper it says Hint=Your favorite animal
These are just very generic examples, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Tip #3

Different Passwords For Each Website

I know this is hard for many, but I have an easy way of keeping track of all your passwords that I will share.
This tip is important because even with the most secure password ever, imagine if one website's database gets hacked (Cough Cough..Yahoo) and someone gains access to your password and your email and you use the same email and password for almost everything on the internet. They are going to have a field day, and I will not come to your bank accounts funeral.

So my advice that I will give to you to make your life a whole lot easier is this...

You can use similar passwords for each site, they don't all have to be completely different. And the way you keep track of them is simple. So remember that piece of paper where you wrote down your passwords (passphrases), you should establish which password is going to be your basic use password.
So let's say you really want to use the password Dog, Dog from this point forward will be instead written down as Basic or Usual. Dog will become your base for all of your other password creations, so for website number 1 you use the password Dog.
For your next favorite website you use the password Dog11, so when you write that down you will write usual with 11

To anybody that may read that paper they will have no idea what that means, and they will never guess your password. But when you look back at that you remember exactly what password you used for that site.

And as you gain more accounts across more and more websites,
you can then start doing things like,
-Usual with capital G, which would equal doG,
and another one could be,
-Opposite of usual, which would then give you the hint that you password for that site is cat

I hope that makes sense to you guys, this is my advice to keeping your passwords safe, and keeping all of your valuable information safe as well.

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Thanks for reading! Upvote ( ^ ) if you learned something 👍

-NextTimeTech