When it comes to passwords, it’s no surprise that a lot of people choose to use words that are easy to remember and important to them. Unfortunately, this means that cybercriminals may easily hack into their accounts.
If you find yourself using the name of your pets or employers in your passwords, you have a high chance to become a statistic for negative password hygiene and fall victim to email hackers and other cybercriminals.
In this guide, we’ll explain how to create an unhackable password for your accounts so you can keep yourself secure in the uncertain digital landscape.
Weak Passwords to Learn From
It goes without saying that poor password behaviors will put your security at risk. Although you’d think that professionals would know how to create secure passwords in 2022, many people engage in poor password habits because they don’t think their account is valuable enough for hackers.
This, in turn, creates a cybersecurity threat to everybody in their network. Others who are often hacked only change their passwords when prompted to by their service or email provider. Many other victims of cybercrimes use obvious phrases or numbers within their passwords, like their employer’s names, pet’s names, and anniversary or vacation dates.
Create an unhackable password by ensuring that you change your password often instead of needing to be prompted to, and never reuse the same password once you change it. Never use your own name or your employer’s name in a password to heighten security.
Include Numbers and Special Characters Throughout
Incorporate special characters and numbers throughout your password to create one that’s truly unique and unhackable. Replace some letters with special characters that resemble or sound like them. For example, you can use “@” instead of the letter “a,” or the number “8” for long-A-sounding vowels.
Use a Password Manager
Password managers are a great modern tool that can keep your passwords protected and encrypted. These managers can keep your passwords safe from cybercriminals who want to steal your information. Password managers may also create long-form passwords stuffed with numbers and special characters and save them to your browser.
Use Two-Factor Authentication
Microsoft has reported that using multi-factor authentication can make your account 99.9% less likely to be compromised. By signing up for two-factor authentication, you can get a push notification sent to your phone or email every time there is a successful login attempt on your account. Two-factor authentication will make your password unhackable because cybercriminals will reach a dead end, even after a successful login attempt.
Use a VPN in Public
Virtual private networks—or VPNs, for short—can keep you protected from prying eyes. Public Wi-Fi is one of the biggest threats to your cybersecurity, and using a VPN will help your password become unhackable since your online presence is virtually undetectable.
How to Make Your Password Unhackable
Now that you know several password security statistics and weak password mistakes, you can put them to good use. Not only do you need to create strong passwords with long character lengths, but you also need to turn on two-factor authentication for all of your accounts. Additionally, if you use password generators and password managers, you can increase your security and keep your passwords in an encrypted place.
By learning from the mistakes of others and following password security trends in 2022, you can create unhackable accounts across email, social media, and banking institutions.
Lydia McAllister is a content marketing specialist with experience writing on compliance and security topics for Secureframe.