Tech Tip #1
Welcome to an installment of tech tips, brought to you by the good folks of GoComputek. Your success is our success! Some of our most important documents and secrets are locked away. They are stored in cyber vaults that are protected by digital locks. The “password” or a “passcode” is composed of a combination of characters. Passwords protect any range of information. The information extends from our bank accounts, files stored on clouds, email accounts, to our personal devices, just to name a few.
What some people forget is that there are hackers that have discovered nifty methods, mainly by exploiting systems, to steal passwords so they can access important information and wreak havoc over our lives. These cyber criminals either sell the information they steal on the dark web or take it for ransom to extort money from their helpless victims.
Hackers can have great ease accessing the information or great difficulty. It depends on the complexity of the combination of characters. It goes without saying, but passwords are the first line of defense to protect our assets. So, our first tech tip is to stop using “password” and “12345678” as your everyday password. Do the following instead to create a robust password:
Tech Tips to Create a Good Password
- Your password should be anywhere between 12 to 16 characters in length. If you can do more than 16, more power to you.
- It should contain both capitals and lower-case letters, numbers and special characters (%_^*-#).
- The passwords should NOT contain any personal information. Bad examples include: your name, names of family members, birth dates, place of birth and anything that can be found on public records relating to you.
- A good password should NOT have basic linear patterns on a keyboard. Linear patterns are easy to determine because brute force programs. Hackers will easily break through these.
Pro tech tips: Create multiple passwords and assign tiers of importance to them that way if an entity whom you hold an account with ever gets hacked, hackers won’t have access to everything you hold dear.
Super pro tech tips: If you have the means, use password managers to keep your passwords safe and to help you create complex passwords. Password managers have the added benefit of automatically typing your password in when accessing applications and web pages so that you don’t have to remember them. Use a Managed IT Service provider to help you!
