Maybe it’s time to reevaluate your password making strategies?

AND finally, admit to yourself that you’ve been at the very least negligent in protecting your own personal information in the past.

 

 

 

“I wish I had found out about password managers a long time ago. I just started using a password manager last month and I’ve been able to store and reset all of my passwords to long complex passwords that I don’t even have to remember.” – Isabella Humphries, Business Development for Juern Technology

 

You’re going about your passwords all wrong.

Do you often get locked out of your accounts because of too many failed login attempts? If you’re currently using the same “generic” password for most logins or have 36 predictable variations of the same password, then you have a target on your back for hackers and we have a solution you need to know about before you become a victim of cyberattacks.

Having to remember and constantly reset passwords can be an irritating reality for virtually every businessperson, both at work and in their personal life. Password management is critical in this tech-rich world that we live in where everything requires a password and racking up a laundry list of passwords happens very quickly. Protecting your sensitive information with a password manager will help you avoid cyberattacks like phishing emails, ransomware, viruses, and other malware.

 

Passwords: How to do it the right way

Here’s what you can do to become a password ninja and never forget another password again. It’s time to reclaim your password power!

 

Get a password manager and watch all of your
password problems disappear!

What is a password manager? It’s software that you use to securely store your usernames, passwords, and other stuff like your confidential notes or banking and payment information.

Is it safe to save passwords to my internet browser? A dedicated password manager’s sole purpose is to protect your passwords. It’s all they do, so you can rest easy knowing that the leading password management companies out there have never been successfully hacked.

What is it like to use a password manager? You would typically access the password manager through your browser if working on a computer or through an app downloaded to your mobile device. Once you’ve signed up for the service and created an epic password you would then save all of your credentials in your password manager and it will function just like your browser, by auto-filling usernames and passwords for you.

What password manager do you recommend? We recommend both LastPass and DashLane password managers to our clients. Our team members use these services for work and home life and we have gotten nothing but positive feedback about both services mentioned above.

 

 

6 great reasons to get a password manager in your life

  1. Never forget a password again
  2. Always have your login information right at your fingertips
  3. Let your password manager auto-generate really secure passwords for you, so you don’t have to sit there for 15 minutes trying to think of a password that meets all the insane requirements
  4. Never accidentally get locked out of another account again
  5. Reset your passwords in seconds with your password manager whenever they expire
  6. Free yourself from all your password baggage by only having to remember one password for your password manager
  7. It’s affordable and most password manager services offer a free service option

 

 

 

The most common password mistake
that can cost you EVERYTHING in your bank account

Reusing passwords is the most common mistake people make when creating passwords online. Reusing passwords over and over again drastically increases the chance that your password will end up for sale on the dark web. When cybercriminals get their hands on your password (or a slight variation of it) they can try that password on multiple popular websites in hopes that they will get lucky and gain access to a website that has your payment information or other sensitive data (request a confidential Dark Web Scan from Juern Technology). If they use that password to break into your personal email, they can also reset passwords at other websites and in the worst-case scenario, transfer all YOUR FUNDS right out of your bank account! It’s important to do everything you can to make it difficult for cybercriminals to get your passwords. This means using long, unique passwords for each website you log in to, never writing down your passwords (especially on a sticky note), and enabling MFA (multi-factor authentication) or 2FA (two-factor authentication) whenever possible.

But who can remember long, unique passwords for all of their accounts? No one. That’s who. And that is precisely why password managers exist now. Because it has become impossible to rely on your memory to manage all your passwords but more importantly it has become far too easy to steal passwords when they‘ve been saved to your notes app on your mobile device, a sheet of paper at your office, or your Chrome browser.

Storing your passwords on your internet browser for easy logins at your favorite websites is not recommended as the best way to secure your passwords. Cybercriminals could potentially gain access to your desktop and impersonate you or copy all of your saved passwords just by visiting an easily accessible settings page. Cybercriminals will be able to get their grubby little hands on a local copy of your passwords cache that is available on any device you use to log in to your Google account.  So, you might want to think twice the next time before saving your passwords on Chrome, or risk suffering a data breach!

 

It’s time to step up your password game because having bad passwords is worse than using your laptop as an umbrella.

 

 

 

How most people make bad passwords:

  1. They use a name, sports team, band, swear word or fictional character
  2. They capitalize a letter
  3. They change characters like A to @ and S to $
  4. They add their birth year at the end or an easy-to-remember number

D@i$y1974

Would you say D@i$y1974 is a strong password?

Most people would say, yes. But the truth is, for a hacker, it would only take 5 days to crack this password. And here’s why:

Hackers have access to tools that, with a little information about you and a push of a button, will start what is called a “Brute-force Attack” on your account that will run automatically in the background to try all the combinations of your password until it finds the right one. Brute-force Attacks can work very quickly, especially when you’re reusing the same generic password at multiple websites, or your password is too short.

 

 

 

4 easy steps to creating a strong password:

  1. Pick 3 or more random words (this helps with length)
  2. Initial cap every word (or at least one)
  3. Add a special character in between all words
  4. Add a number

Not-Flow-Atomic-44

This is a VERY strong password that would take 550 years to try and crack using a Brute-force Attack. And the reason is simple, the password length is long and the words used can’t be guessed by stalking you on social media.

We recommend using this method when creating all of your passwords as we do with our clients who find them easy to use and remember. You can also tell a short story with the words you select to make it even easier to remember, like this:

Swimming-With-23-Birds

It’s non-sensical (to preserves the randomness of the words) but it may be a little easier to remember something like that over a few random words like not, flow and atomic from the first example.

 

 

The future of passwords

What does the future of password security have in store for us? Will logging into your accounts get easier or will it become even more complex than ever before?

The future of passwords is no passwords.

While most of us may already be using fingerprint authentication and face recognition to sign in to our accounts it may surprise you to learn that a new method of passwordless authentication that doesn’t require you to do anything at all, is already on the rise. This new method, known as zero login or zero sign-on, uses factors like behavioral characteristics, typing patterns and location to verify your identity and fix the many drawbacks of using passwords.

 

Learn more about password management

If you would like to learn more about cybersecurity, Neal Juern, President/CEO of Juern Technology teaches password management training as part of our recurring free executive cybersecurity Lunch and Learns. Join us for our next event and get in-person training from San Antonio cybersecurity expert, Neal Juern.

Click here to view upcoming events >

 

 

 

 

Juern Technology is a San Antonio Managed IT Services Provider helping small and medium-sized businesses manage their technology. No other IT services company in San Antonio can touch our fast response time of 3 minutes or less, personalized service with our around-the-clock local Help Desk, live-answered phones, or our ability to deliver technology solutions that keep your projects on track, your remote workers connected, and your data safe. Our service philosophy is proactive, not reactive.  With state-of-the-art network monitoring and management, we manage your network 24/7 to identify issues and address them BEFORE they become problems, rather than putting out fires.