Are Your Passwords a Joke?

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The top 2020 most commonly used (and stolen) passwords last year were laughably insecure. Is your password on the list? If so, change it immediately.

Once you’ve come up with a strong, memorable password it’s tempting to reuse it—don’t! Reusing a password, even a strong one, endangers your accounts just as much as using a weak password. If attackers guess your password, they would have access to your other accounts with the same password. Use the following techniques to develop unique passwords for each of your accounts:

  • Use different passwords on different systems and accounts.
  • Use the longest password or passphrase permissible by each password system.
  • Develop mnemonics to remember complex passwords.
  • Consider using a password manager program to keep track of your passwords (see below).
  • Do not use passwords that are based on personal information that can be easily accessed or guessed.
  • Do not use a single word that can be found in any dictionary of any language, even if you substitute characters for letters like ‘|’ for ‘I’.

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