Sometimes it seems like every time you want to do anything online you need to enter a username and password. Keeping track of your usernames (ideally not your real name) usually isn’t too hard, but passwords are another story.
What makes a good Password?
We all know that a password should be “strong” and always include the following:
- Numbers
- Uppercase letters
- Lowercase letters
- Special characters (!@#$%)
Simple enough, right? However, you also want to avoid making your passwords easy to guess, so none of the following:
- A password shorter than 12 characters
- The same password across multiple websites/accounts
- Sequential letters (abc, xyz, etc)
- Sequential numbers (1234, 0123, 54321, etc)
- Anything that could easily be figured from a quick Google Search (previous school name, birthday, home address, email address, hometown, mother’s maiden name)
- Any password already on this list
That’s a lot of rules to keep track of when all you want to do is access a website. Personally, I keep this website bookmarked to easily create my passwords: passwords-generator.org
How to keep track of your passwords
Now that you have unique, strong passwords for all of your accounts, how do you possibly keep them straight?
DON’T SAVE THEM IN A LIST STORED ONLINE! This is a ticket to getting all of your accounts hacked at once.
There are a lot of strategies out there for doing this. I highly recommend using a Password Manager application. I use TeamsID Business Password Manager. For only $3 a month all of my passwords are easily saved and automatically entered across platforms. Whether I’m on my phone, desktop or a shared laptop all my logins are only a click away.
Here are some other password management options.
I hope these ideas either motivated you to strengthen your password game, or pat yourself on the back for already being on top of all this. If you have any questions about passwords, or anything else, please don’t hesitate to write me!