How to create, manage and store passwords securely

[tarekma7]

Let’s face it: staying on top of your digital life can be a nightmare these days. The average person has more than 90 online accounts to manage, according to recent figures. By 2020, this number is expected to balloon to over 200.

Having robust login credentials is essential for protecting your identity and ensuring your data stays out of the hands of the bad guys. However, there’s simply no way to mentally keep track of all these passwords (particularly if you’re being a good digital citizen and using unique alphanumeric combinations for every single password).

What’s the solution?

In this article, we’ve put together everything you need to know as a business or home user to manage your passwords safely and securely.


Why is it so important to have a good password?
It’s important to have a good password for one very simple reason: it prevents unauthorized access to your physical devices and online accounts. If your password is easy to crack, a cybercriminal may be able to gain access to your bank, social media, email and other private accounts, which could have a devastating effect on your life.

The importance of having robust passwords is particularly pronounced for small businesses. Not only do business owners need to ensure their mission-critical data is safe in order to minimize company downtime, they also need to be doing everything they can to protect their clients’ personal information, which may be stored on the company’s system. Small businesses often find themselves in the hackers’ crosshairs, due to the fact they typically don’t have the resources to support a dedicated IT security team. Cybercriminals are well aware of this – in 2016, about half of all small- and medium-sized businesses in the US experienced a breach, according to figures collated by Keeper Security.

Of course, none of this should come as shocking news. In fact, you’re probably sick and tired of security experts telling you to improve your password hygiene. However, it seems that a pretty big chunk of the population has yet to get the memo, as far too many people are still relying on passwords that are about as secure as a wet paper bag (read: not at all). As SplashData reported, the two most popular (i.e. the worst) passwords of 2017 were, for the fourth year in a row, ‘123456’ and ‘password’. Other notable mentions included ‘qwerty’ (coming in at #4), ‘iloveyou’ (#10) and ‘starwars’ (#16).

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