It has emerged that social media users are rather relaxed about the use of passwords for their platforms. Creating the most basic passwords, people are appallingly lax with regard to security on the internet. The most recent Facebook breach saw at least 30 million accounts compromised.
Easy to Hack Passwords
Of the 30 million, 14 million had personal information exposed. Information such as contact details, recent location check-ins and possibly addresses and workplaces may have been compromised.
Passwords such as 000000 with Captain Marvel as the username should be a red flag. It will not take an IT prodigy to hack into your account and mess around with you. While Facebook must ensure that such incidents are not repeated, you must ensure that your password is not too easy to hack.
Here are 5 tips for creating a password that is strong enough to protect your data as well as your personal information.
Create a Password that is Not Easy to Remember
Many Facebook and other social media users pick a password that is convenient and easy to remember. You must know a few people who use their birthdays, for instance.
It is much safer to create a password that is not easy to crack. The length of your password matters too. Make it long. Hackers type random numbers and letters as well as symbols as they attempt to hack into your account.
More accomplished ones opt for the ‘brute force attack’ where a computer program tries to match numerous combinations of numbers, letters and symbols as fast as they can to unscramble your password.
A long complex password will take them quite a while to crack. A short one could be cracked in a nanosecond.
Mix up Numbers, Symbols, and Upper/Lowercase Letters
There should be no formula to this. Pick random numbers, symbols and letters. Some of the latter should be in the uppercase and others in the lowercase in no certain fashion.
Create a Nonsense Phrase
A long phrase that contains random words that make no sense makes a great password. You could make up your own words that cannot be found in any dictionary. Your phrases should not be found in any publication either.
No Personal Information
Information such as anniversaries, birthdays, colleges and pets’ names that anyone can obtain should not be included in your password. In case you are expected to answer security questions when creating your online account, avoid those that are not obvious to people browsing your accounts.
Change Your Password Regularly
Do not retain a password for too long, however uncomfortable that makes you. Change it regularly and ensure that you do not reuse the old passwords for a long, long time. If you have very sensitive information in your social media accounts, you must make sure that your password changes as often as possible.
Conclusion
It is possible that hackers, especially determined ones, will keep trying to crack your passwords and access your accounts. There are free websites that offer extra protection when you avail a phone number. They will text a code which you must key in to be allowed access to your account or to change your password.
