As ridiculous as the title of this blog post seems, you’d be surprised at how many people are still using poor password hygiene!
NordPass research shows that people are still using easy-to-hack passwords like “iloveyou,” “password,” and “123456789.” The most common password of 2022 was “password.” It sits at the of the 200 worst passwords with 4,929,113 people using it.
According to the 2022 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, over 80% of breaches of online sites and apps were caused by stolen or weak credentials.
We know, we know… You have a ton of passwords and change is hard! But we promise good password habits are key to keeping your data (and your customer’s data) much safer.
We’ve got everything you need right here to make password management easy!
Password Best Practices
- Aim for at least three complexity factors (e.g., upper- and lower-case letters, numbers, and special characters)
- Length trumps complexity. Aim for 16+ characters.
- Never share your password with others.
- Never write them down…anywhere!
- Never reuse passwords.
- Use a password manager.
Free Password Managers
Use Passphrases
Passphrases are a sequence of random words and characters to create a password. They are often longer – around 20-30 characters. This is ideal for passwords.
Using a passphrase helps you remember it. Here are some examples:
- myfavoritepet’safanofchewingrope (34 characters)
- todayisMarch10-andit’sraining (30 characters)
- Purplestreet-Blueleaves-4fall (30 characters)
- SillyStringSings4You…andMe! (29 characters)
Using a string of words creates a long password that’s random. Use symbols, numbers, or uppercase letters to make it stronger. A well thought out passphrase would take a ridiculous amount of time to crack.
Pro Tip: A passphrase would be best used as your master password for your password manager.
The Perfect Password Solution
Make weak and forgotten passwords a thing of the past. Using a password manager and creating a passphrase master password for your new account will make your life infinitely easier!
Just imagine only having to remember one, easy to remember, password. Experts at Aligned see freedom and security in your future.
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