In this article, I will explain how to use a secure password in your online accounts in various websites.
Follow the tips given below to secure your online accounts in various websites:
- Do not use same password in all websites.
- Use a high secure password for bank accounts, trusted email accounts (Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail) etc.
- Use a totally different password for other websites.
- Never use a dictionary word or part of your name as password in any website.
- Make sure password is atleast 6 characters long and contain a mix of upper case, lower case letters and a numeric digit.
You must be aware that webmasters can see your password from the database in most sites. If you are using same password for all of your accounts in various websites, then there are chances that some webmasters may abuse your information and try to access your accounts in other sites using your login and password.
How do hackers abuse your password?
Hackers use automated systems to randomly try millions of combinations of words, digits and characters to see if they can login to your account. If you have some simple dictionary words or your name as the password, a hacking software can easily break in to your account.
How to make a secure password?
You can have a very secure base password which include 1 special character, 1 capital letter, 1 lower case and 1 numeric digit. For all of your bank accounts, email accounts etc, use this same secure password, but add an extra character in the end of password for each of those sites. The extra character to add can be same as the first letter of the site name, so that you can easily remember it.
For example, consider this is your secure base password:
Run4Fun!
The above password has 2 capital letters, 1 numeric digit and a special character. The combination of all these makes it a secure password.
Now, do not use this same password in all of your critical sites like bank accounts etc. The reason is, there may be hacking or other security breaches in bank sites as well and if someone steal your password from a bank account, they should not be able to use it in your other bank accounts as well.
So, say if you have an account with Citibank. Then use this password for Citybank account:
Run4Fun!C
(I added C in the end of the base password since the name of the bank starts with C. Instead of the first letter, you may choose to use the second, third or last letter of the bank name).
Now, if you want to use this password for your hotmail account, then use this password for your hotmail:
Run4Fun!H
(I added H at the end since Hotmail start with H).
This approach makes it easy to have secure password in all sites and remember them easily.
If a hacker steal passwords from one bank and use their automated hacking software to login to your other bank accounts, it will not work since your password is slightly different in other banks. (However, if some one is manually reading your password, they can easily find that you are just appending a character at the end and they can make a guess on your password in other sites too). In case of all major hack attempts, they use automated systems.
However, in case of small websites, there may not be any hackers involved. Instead, it could be some employees or owners of small websites who have access to your password who try to abuse your password. So, do not use the same base password with an appended character in small sites. Instead, you must use few different sets of passwords that you can use in small sites and have to remember them.
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