The general recommendation for a good password is that it should be something that is unique, contains a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters, and that it is easy for you to remember but hard for anyone else to guess.
In addition to these general guidelines, there are also several other approaches that improve the safety of your accounts for online services:
- Use generated passwords. When you use a password that is generated by F-Secure ID PROTECTION, there is no memorization system or other clues that can be used to break the password.
- Change your password. It’s a good idea to get into a habit of changing your passwords every now and again, but if nothing else, change your password immediately for any service that notifies you of a potential data breach.
- Whenever feasible, use different email addresses for different types of online services. This means that if your email account is hacked, it won’t put all of your online accounts at risk.
- Avoid using your email address as a username whenever possible. Many services automatically create your account with your email address as a username, but if not, use something else.
Why you need to use different passwords for each service and account
Security experts generally recommend that you use strong, unique passwords for each of your online services and accounts.
Strong passwords that contain several different types of characters are compulsory for some online services – the password that you enter when you sign up is not accepted if it is too short or not complex enough.
However, even if you come up with a highly complex password that is virtually impossible for anyone else to guess, the safety of your account to online services is at risk if you use that same password for each account. For example, if hackers gain access to the login details for one of the services that you use, they can then use that information to access any of your other online accounts where you have used the same password. Using a unique password for each account means that even in the event of a data breach in one of the services you use, your other accounts are not at risk.