Password Security for Websites

Friday, May 12th, 2017

Secure passwords are important for personal use, but even more important for businesses. Constantly having to create passwords for every aspect of your online life can be annoying, but it’s a necessity.  Using the same password for multiple accounts is not a smart idea and it’s basically like leaving your backdoor open in the middle of the night. No one wants to wake up to annoying bug bites or even worse, an empty house!

Your website passwords and email passwords are no exception!  Using weak passwords or duplicate passwords leaves the door open for hackers to compromise your website and emails.  This can lead to website/email downtime and time/ money loss for your business.  And when your website is down, it’s easy for people to assume you’re out of business!

So how can you protect yourself?  Here are some basic tips that you can use that may help you out:

Use A Password Protected File

Have a password protected file for your passwords, most cell phones have a notepad lock, or you can Google how to do this on your phone / tablet / PC. Organize it by Website – Username/Email – Password to make it quick and easy to find what you need.
For example:
Company: Staples
User: bob@emailaddress.com
Pass: ffiUH78$!hrjBW

Copy and Paste

Copy and paste your passwords in whenever you are able to. If you have a keylogging software installed (and are obviously unaware of it), every key you type is captured – including all of your passwords.

Use Complex Passwords

Do not use anything obvious or easy for your passwords including anything with the name “password” in it. Other passwords you should avoid is anything with numeric ordered numbers, your birthday – date – year, ASDFG (in keyboard sequence), basic words (eg: cloudyday) or names of pets. Try not to use a password that you can easily remember.

Keep It Secure

Be sure your computer has some type of antivirus program installed. Always be sure to “log off” or “sign out” when you are logged in, regardless of what device / computer. And never give out your password to “just anyone”.

Unique Passwords

Do not use the same password for multiple different accounts. This can be one of the most difficult parts of secure passwords – creating & then needing to remember a unique password! You will want to create a strong password will consist of a combination of letters + numbers + special characters (@,$,*,~,%,!). This can be done easily by searching for “password generator” and there’s plenty of options that will create a random unique password for you to use.

We hope you are able to put some of these tips to good use! It can be annoying and time consuming to create unique secure passords – but not nearly as annoying or time consuming as the time taken away from your business if your password(s) are compromised.