While it may be convenient to re-use the same user name and password for multiple accounts, all it takes is one data breach on a poorly protected site and you can be seriously compromised. At the very least, we recommend using unique passwords for sites that store your financial data, whether that’s online banking or simply a store site where your credit card information is saved. There are a number of reputable password vault apps available to download, for free, which can greatly improve your online security posture by enabling you to easily save unique passwords for each site you register on. You only need to remember the Master password for the secure vault, which contains all the individual account passwords.
For passwords that you need to remember (i.e. that perhaps aren’t stored in a vault) we recommend using phrases that mean something to you, but will be very difficult to guess for someone else. For example, MyDogAteMyHomeworkAgain,DarnIt would take significantly longer to be cracked by common brute force methods than P@s5w0rd99, simply due to the number of characters involved. The use of Upper Case, Lower Case and the comma would likely satisfy most password complexity rules also.
Lastly, where possible, we strongly encourage the use of 2FA (two factor authentication) which requires the entry of one time pass codes, either sent by SMS to your mobile or through an authenticator app, during a login, to significantly improve your account security.
We can help with setting you up with an appropriate vaulting solution an authenticator app or both… Just drop us a line via our contact form if you’d like our assistance. We recommend Bitwarden and LastPass vaults, available for Windows, Mac, iOS and Andriod, with browser plugins for most of the major browsers.
Bitwarden Lastpass
