Our lives can be traced and tracked all over the internet, most of the time this is done by companies who are then placing adverts everywhere you look, but today isn't an article about those pesky adverts following you around it's about your passwords and how tracking methods can be used by hackers to get access to your online life. Being hacked is one of the scariest experiences a person can go through, as you have no idea of the impact or even how the hacker may have obtained access to your accounts. As a result of this people lose money, personal data anything that is stored online can be taken away from you. This is why today we have decided to write an article to help you strengthen your online profiles. These methods can be applied whether you are an individual or a business. Here are some handy Do's and Dont's to help build a strong password.

Do's

• Use numbers, letters, punctuation, and capitalisation.
• Choose a password that is at least 12 characters (Studies have shown that a 12 character password can take up to 62 trillion times longer to crack than a 6 character one)
• Include random words that do not correlate with each other.
• Use a password manager to store and keep track of your passwords

Dont's

• Reuse your password no matter how strong it may seem, try and keep them unique to every account you hold.
• Do not include personal information.
• Write them down and leave them lying around.

As mentioned in our Do list there are tools out there that can help you or your business manage your different passwords and there are also tools out there to simplify the whole process of creating and maintaining your passwords. You can use:

• My1login's Strenght Test: This service will test the strength of your password and is free.
• Have I been Pwned: This tool allows you to check to see if your e-mail has been part of any data breaches.
• LastPass: This tool stores, generates, and monitors your passwords.
• 1Password Generator: This service will generate a random password for you.

The next step in protecting your online identity is to enable MFA wherever possible, this security feature is known to prevent 99.9% of data breaches. To learn more about MFA please read our article on the subject.

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If you have any questions about your business cybersecurity health please do reach out to us and we would be more than happy to have a discussion.

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