Does it have https in the address bar, ensuring a secure connection? Do you get the sense it is up on the newest security standards of the day? If not, think twice about sharing any personal data with it. Multi-factor authentication MFA adds an extra layer of protection which becomes your first layer of protection should your account details ever get leaked.
These have become the new industry standard for effective security. In our blog post here , we explain how they are used and how you can add MFA to common social accounts such as Twitter and Facebook. They require something in addition to a password, such as biometrics fingerprint, eye scan, etc.
Further reading: How to use multi-factor authentication for safer apps. This is a well-trod path by many hackers in the past few years. The best MFA method is to use a specialized app for your smartphone. The app generates a one-time PIN that you enter as the additional factor during your login process.
The PINs automatically change every 30 seconds. It serves as your MFA, granting you file access only if you physically have the key.
In , Google mandated all of its employees to begin using security keys , and the company claims it has not experienced a single data breach among its 85, workers since. They have their own product called the Titan Security Key , designed specifically to protect people against phishing attacks. For MFA and security keys: check out the FIDO alliance , which is working on creating strong authentication standards for desktop and mobile apps.
When a certain security key, website, mobile app, etc. In the early days of practical thought, Socrates doled out the sophisticated advice: Know thyself. Protect your login information further with these common sense, high-security tips:. Learn about the latest breaches, the biggest breaches, and what you can do to keep yourself and your information protected with our Avast Data Breach Survival Guide.
On May 2, celebrate World Password Day by leveling up the strength and complexity of these most critical of security measures — your passwords.
Avast security experts explain the basics of staying safe on social media, public Wi-Fi, the internet of things, and more in ways that every parent can understand. Sitemap Privacy policy. Privacy How to create a strong password. Charlotte Empey 15 Aug How does a password get hacked?
Brute force attack This attack tries to guess every combination in the book until it hits on yours. Dictionary attack This attack is exactly what it sounds like — the hacker is essentially attacking you with a dictionary. Phishing That most loathsome of tactics — phishing — is when cybercriminals try to trick, intimidate, or pressure you through social engineering into unwittingly doing what they want. The anatomy of a strong password Now that we know how passwords are hacked, we can create strong passwords that outsmart each attack though the way to outsmart a phishing scam is simply not to fall for it.
Avoid these top 10 weak passwords Can it be brute force attacked? Keeping in mind the nature of a brute force attack, you can take specific steps to keep the brutes at bay: Make it long. This is the most critical factor. Choose nothing shorter than 15 characters, more if possible. Use a mix of characters. The more you mix up letters upper-case and lower-case , numbers, and symbols, the more potent your password is, and the harder it is for a brute force attack to crack it.
Avoid common substitutions. Password crackers are hip to the usual substitutions. Much like the advice above not to use sequential letters and numbers, do not use sequential keyboard paths either like qwerty. The key aspects of a strong password are length the longer the better ; a mix of letters upper and lower case , numbers, and symbols, no ties to your personal information, and no dictionary words.
You simply need a few tricks. The secret is to make passwords memorable but hard to guess. Learning a few simple skills will make creating strong memorable passwords easy. Creating them can actually be fun - and your payoff in increased safety is huge. The word "Password" is the most commonly used password.
These are simple words that can be easily guessed by a user. Programs that use automated databases can perform a dictionary assault on your system, identifying the password easily. Marshall - though this example uses 12 characters and includes letters and numbers, it includes both a name that can be associated with you or your family, and other identifying pieces of information such as your birth year, which means it can be easily hacked.
So you've settled on a password that's the perfect length, obscure, and mixes letters, numbers, and cases. You're on the right track, but not to total password security just yet. Seems simple enough, right? By learning a few simple skills, you can easily create a strong and memorable password with minimal effort.
Plus, creating them can actually be fun - and your payoff in increased safety is huge. These examples let you use phrases that either means something to you, or you associate with a type of website.
Don't use a solitary word in any language. Hackers have dictionary-based systems to crack these types of passwords. If you insist on using a word, misspell it as much as possible, or insert numbers for letters. Don't use a derivative of your name, the name of a family member or the name of a pet. In addition to names, do not use phone numbers, addresses, birthdays or Social Security numbers. If remembering multiple passwords is an issue, you can use a password manager such as Norton Identity Safe to securely store your passwords.
Do use abbreviated phrases for passwords. You can choose a phrase such as "I want to go to England. Don't write your passwords down, share them with anyone or let anyone see you log into devices or websites. Don't answer "yes" when prompted to save your password to a particular computer's browser. Instead, rely on a strong password committed to memory or stored in a dependable password management program.
Norton Security stores your passwords securely and fills them in online in encrypted form. If all of this is too much for you, you can simplify this process by using the Norton Identity Safe Password Generator. It will allow you to customize your password by length, and gives you the choice of including letters, numbers, mixed case and punctuation. This may seem like a long, complicated process to go through just to log into a website, however, it is not as complicated as a cybercriminal gaining access to your passwords and stealing your identity.
Just remember that a bit of legwork now can protect you from extremely compromising situations in the long run. All rights reserved.
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