Passwords are the gate to all our online accounts, our computers, our mobile phones, our protected documents, our smart doors; almost everything that requires some form of access control at this point in time will most likely use a password as one of the forms of authentication.
In 2021 the most common passwords people use still include: 123456, password, qwerty, and more. This is really disappointing given the amount of risk that comes with having a weak security of any online account, especially social media, email accounts and bank accounts.
Most of the people go ahead and re-use their passwords on multiple sites. For example, their email password will be the same as their Facebook password, similar to their Twitter, LinkedIn, and even the bank password. This means that gaining access to one password gives a malicious person access to almost all their online life. This is scary.
But still even when some use different passwords for their accounts there’s a problem. The passwords are so easy to crack (a hackers way of guessing passwords). Such that it takes very less time to gain access to their online accounts still. A password with your favorite football team plus your year of birth is still a very weak password in CyberSec standards.
So how can you be safe?
Enter password managers. These are applications, both local and online, that help you generate, store and manage your passwords. A password manager autogenerates a super strong random password for each account you want to save therein. Some go ahead and can autofill these complex password for you when logging in to the respective websites.
This solves the two main security loopholes associated with passwords. That is guessing and commonality.
PCMag provides a really good comparison of password managers on this page.
Ensure your passwords are really secure. Be vigilant in changing your password and stay safe online.
