These days hackers are everywhere. From spammy emails to people trying to break into your accounts, it doesn’t seem to matter what you do, you can’t get away from them. Now hackers use automated software that tries combination after combination to guess your password. That’s why it is more important than ever before to make sure that you have a strong password that is impossible for even a computer to figure out. How do you do that though? Here are a few tips.
- Make your password as long as possible. Most passwords require a minimum of 8 characters, but you should always have a password that’s longer than the minimum. In this case, less isn’t more. Strive for more than 12 characters – the longer the better.
- Include a mix of different characters. Be sure to include lower-case and upper-case letters, numbers, & symbols. One of each is okay but two or more of each is much better.
- Choose multiple random words. Pick four or so words and put them together to make a password – but don’t make a sentence out of them. For example, your password could be “envelope green six elephant”. Just make sure that you include different characters in there as well.
- Steer away from obvious substitutions. While “C0mput3r” is better than “computer,” it won’t take very much longer to guess.
- Use multi-factor authentication. Multi-factor authentication uses a code (such as a password) along with something in addition like a second code sent to your mobile device, or biometrics (such as your fingerprint).
For more tips on how to strengthen your password, or for assistance to set up multi-factor authentication, contact PrydeTech at (817) 203-1054, or info@prydetech.com.
