Why passwords are important

Working with many persons around the world I see each day that nobody cares about the importance of a password. Are they locking their door when leaving home? In the last years we started to move almost everything we do in the digital world and the COVID pandemic accelerated this even more. We do online shopping, banking, communicating, listening music, Netflix binging, paying bills and much more. Everything is related to a username and password. The things we store in our email, the chat we have with our friends, the money we have in our account is our private data any many times, sensitive. Having a weak password for all of these is like leaving your home door open for everyone.

I’ve seen persons that were saying “What if they access my email? I don’t have any secrets” or “I have to many things to remember”. Well…having access to your account someone can do almost anything. Maybe you have some ID pictures, some supplier invoices, maybe you use this email address for online shopping. He can order some products from your account where you have stored your credit cards, or he can hijack your phone, or access your bank account. And these are the first three things that came in my mind. I’ve encountered persons that lost five-figure amounts of money. You always remember to lock your door, you can remember at least a password. Just create one that reminds you of something and for the rest use a password manager (we will have another topic about this).

In general access to an account is obtained by trying different password combinations based on dictionaries. Not having a complex password gives easy access to an unauthorized user. Every password should have at least ten characters, while using lower & upper case characters, numbers and symbols.

Of course, nothing is bulletproof and even a complex password can be broken or taken from you via a keylogger. Most systems today are offering users also an extra feature, multi factor authentication. If you can use it, DO IT. You will have an extra layer of security making unauthorized access very difficult. It’s like having a second door, or an alarm.

We live in a world where everyone is hunting for information, protect yours as best as you can.