If you have a Google password, you may have heard that a number of usernames and passwords were leaked by a third party company.
It is a good reminder that we shouldn’t take internet security for granted.
Here are three things you can [practically] do to keep your password safe.
1. Change your password often
Experts say you should change your password at least once every three months. For those of you who have the same password for all your accounts this should be an easy task!
Which leads us to the next point
2. Don’t have the same password for any two accounts
Most people have only one or two passwords for all their accounts. The problem is that if your password is compromised, as in the case of the gmail password leak, the hacker can potentially access all your other online accounts.
So how do you remember all those passwords?
I’ll tell you in a minute
3. Make sure your passwords have a combination of letters, numbers and symbols
The reason is straightforward. The more random the password the harder it is to guess.
How to manage your passwords:
There are password managing tools available. Two of the most popular password managers are lastpass.com or 1 password (I personally use LastPass)
When you use LastPass, every time you go to a new site, you can ask LastPass to suggest a password and then it will save it in an encrypted format for you in the LastPass vault.
One of the best features of LastPass is that the LastPassvault is not just linked to your computer, at anytime you can go to lastpass.com and login to your LastPass vault.
I also like how LastPass can automatically fill in your username and password for you.
For those of you who use Chrome, you can add the lastpass extension. Get the LastPass extension HERE.
So where to from here?
