When implementing password best practices, what is not considered a best practice?

We’re accustomed to usernames and passwords. That’s a fact. Some of you may not find passwords to be the most convenient way of authentication. But still, you need to stay up-to-date on password security best practices in 2022. Passwords provide the first line of defense against illegal access to your personal information. In this article, we share 5 password security best practices you have to apply in 2022 and years ahead.

• Is your password secure?
• Password security mistakes you should avoid right now
• Worst password ideas of all times
• 5 strong password practices you need to know about
• Now you know how secure is your password

Is your password secure?

We are increasingly active online. We greatly rely on the internet to carry out many tasks in our daily lives. This means that we are filling our profiles with a massive amount of personal information. For this reason, our activity becomes a lucrative target for cybercriminals. To make sure that every aspect of your online interactions is secure, you must protect your passwords. Briefly, passwords are the ‘front door’ for hackers. Enhance your knowledge of best password practices in 2022 and take full control of your digital life.

Password security mistakes you should avoid right now

When used properly, passwords are a very simple way to protect personal information or IT systems from unauthorized access. However, many individuals use easy-to-guess, common and predictable passwords, which expose them to cyber risks.

Besides that, you’ve probably heard so many times that you shouldn’t use the same password on your account, whether be it a social media account or the account you use for Amazon. According to Online Security Survey by Google in February 2019, 52% of respondents stated that they reuse the same password for multiple accounts. 13% of respondents said that they use the same password for all their accounts.

Remember: strong password hygiene is vital to prevent the theft of your personal information. Avoid these common password mistakes:

• Avoid easily guessed passwords. The problem basically starts with password recycling, which is a risky practice. Substituting lower case for upper case or vice versa is also password recycling.
• Don’t add personal information in your passwords. If your password includes your name, surname, birthday, address or phone number, then you must consider changing it.
• Don’t use the same password across several accounts. This may be the easiest way to remember your passwords. Unfortunately, it is also the fastest way to trouble. Did you know that in 2016, Mark Zuckerberg’s Linkedin, Twitter and Pinterest accounts were hacked, as he was using the same password for multiple social media platforms?

Worst password ideas of all times

It is never too late to learn from the mistakes of others. Below are some of the worst password ideas people have been using. Be aware of them and avoid these combinations.

• Basic sequences like “abcd1234”, “qwerty123”, “asdfgh”, “qqww1122″, and “1q2w3e4r”
• “password” or its variations like “passw0rd”
• The website names like “twitter2021”, “instagram123” or “creditsuisse111”
• Other passwords you have to avoid: “sunshine”, “default”, “football”, “computer”, “iloveyou1”, “princess1”, “starwars”, “letmein”, “pokemon”, “batman”, “cookie”

5 strong password practices you need to know about

What is the most secure practice when creating passwords? There are simple ways to keep intruders from taking over your accounts. Let’s take a closer look at five password security best practices provided by the Swiss Cyber Forum.

1. Make sure your password is complex

So is a long password the way to go? Possibly, yes. Short-length passwords are easy to hack. For added security, try to create lengthier passwords. Using upper and lowercase alphanumerical characters is also one of the best practices to enhance password security.

To increase the complexity of your password, you can add spaces, punctuation, or misspellings to your password. Implementing all these will make your password less predictable. Don’t forget that the length of your password is a significantly important attribute.

2. Use a word that can’t be found in a dictionary

There are multiple ways that criminals use to find passwords. A brute force attack is one of them. These attacks are the random trial-and-error sessions or repeated successive attempts of guessing password combinations. Hackerssimply let the bot do the job – executing a high number of attempts per minute until they find a password.

If you must use a dictionary word, try either combining your password with a number or adding punctuation at the beginning or at the end of the word. Get creative and formulate unique combinations.

3. When possible, use brackets

Feel free to use curly { }, round ( ), square [ ] or even angle < > brackets. They are rarely used by people. The more you mix up letters with brackets or symbols, the harder it is for a hacker to compromise it.

4. Use misspelling words

Bad spelling or password typos can actually make a huge difference in your overall password security. Hackers usually are searching for passwords using correct grammar and spelling in their attacks. The potential benefit of this method is the fact that it enables you to create more complicated passwords.

5. Change your passwords periodically

Stay one step ahead of hackers by changing your passwords. But there is a problem that comes with changing your passwords regularly. We don’t actually mean changing a password every month. You may naturally wonder what is the best time to change the password. We would say it is when a website you have an account for is hacked. Also, if you share your password with somebody else, it’s time to change it now.

Now you know how secure is your password

There are several ways to prevent passwords from being hacked. First and foremost, it is important not to use the same password for multiple accounts. Secondly, it is better to use non-predictable and complex passwords. We have provided several tips for password security along with password security best practices. After all, the best solution entails a combination of strong password requirements as mentioned above.

In cyber security, staying sharp is vital. We recently shared 5 Benefits of Cyber Security Training for Employees to watch this summer and 8 Biggest Data Breaches of 2021 you should be reading. Do not stop learning and keep an eye on our weekly blog posts.

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