Data breaches & hacking attempts are a common occurrence and threat to any business. Our business at Cyber Defenders is to guard your network every day from these types of threats, but there are simple things you and your staff can do as well to keep your network more secure: mainly using a secure password. We would even argue this is the most important step - just like remembering to lock your front door! Hackers are always try any way to get in, and password hacking methods such as guessing or “brute force attacking” are still very popular methods. Choosing a more secure password is your first line of defense for network security. Here are 5 tips for creating more secure passwords:

1) Longer Passwords: 8 Characters is Just a Starting Point

You should always choose a password with a minimum of 8 characters, using a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters (@, #, !, etc.). We recommend using even more when possible. Combining more than one word randomly or creating a nonsensical phrase makes it even more difficult to guess, but be sure to keep it memorable to you so you do not forget.

2) Avoid Using Known Personal Information

Obviously, passwords are often chosen because we don’t want to forget them. We’ve all seen the movies where a character easily gains access to someone’s laptop by guessing a pet’s name or birthday. But these things can easily be gained from your social media profiles or even just general conversation with someone, so keep anything that is well known about you out of your passwords. Stick to something random or obscure that most people wouldn’t just know.

3) Avoid Dictionary or Common Words & Phrases

If it can be found in the dictionary or is a common word, then it is easier to hack. Don’t use common passwords such as “password1”, common phrases such as “thequickbrownfox”, or other common sequences such as “abc123.” These are easily guessed. Keep it random and/or obscure. Do you know another language? Do you remember your old license plate number from your first car? Your best friend’s dogs name from high school? Dig deep and be creative!

4) Don’t Recycle Passwords

Keep your passwords fresh and don’t use the same one for everything. Large-scale hacking is a growing trend, especially with popular email servers. If your password has been hacked in one place, it can easily be used to gain access to any other login.

5) Do Your Research

So you think you’ve come up with some pretty unique passwords, but do you really know how common they are? Google's Password Checkup can show you which of your email addresses and passwords have reported as comprised by a data breach.  Also check your passwords through Have I Been Pwned to see how often that particular password has been seen in reported data breaches. This is especially useful to see just how popular that password has been.

Creating secure passwords and keeping your logins safe is the very first defense against hacking, and is often the most overlooked aspect of network security. It’s never a bad idea to take double check your password - especially if you haven’t updated them in awhile.