As a WordPress site owner, is there something scarier than the thought of having all of your hard work modified or entirely erased by a malicious attacker?
We hear about security breaches and cyberattacks all the time in the news. And you may be wondering why anyone would go after my small company site. However, attacks do not just occur to the top company’s owner. According to one study, small companies were the target of 43 percent of all data breaches.
It is crucial to use strong passwords since weak or stolen passwords are responsible for 81% of all hacking-related breaches.
It’s no secret that cybercriminals place a high value on passwords. Safe, unique passwords are becoming increasingly important because you devote many private details to companies and businesses, which might be targets of data breaches and password leaks. However, there’s nothing that you can do to stop a large-scale data breach, and you may take precautions by ensuring you use strong usernames and passwords for your user accounts.
This article will explain how a password gets hacked and some best tips to make your password strong.
How does a Password Get Attacked?
Cyber attackers have many password-hacking strategies at their hands, but the simplest is just purchasing your passwords on the dark web. The black market buys and sells login credentials and passwords for a lot of money, and if you have been utilizing the same password for a long time, prospects are it has been hacked.
One way of gaining access is to guess your password. They can perform this by checking your security questions, social media presence, or other online information. As a result, you mustn’t include any confidential info in your passwords.
Some Best Tips to Make Your Passwords Strong
Here are several best tips to make your password strong, which includes:
- Use password managers
Rather than writing your passwords on paper where they could be discovered, you can use a password manager to keep them online securely. Password managers can memorize and input your password on multiple websites, saving you from remembering complicated passwords. LastPass, 1Password, and Google Chrome’s password manager are all instances of password managers.
It is an excellent example of a strong password. It’s robust, lengthy, and complicated for others to guess. It has more than ten characters with letters (uppercase and lowercase), numerals, and symbols, but no apparent private details or common phrases are included. This password can also be too hard to remember without the assistance of a password manager, emphasizing why they are so helpful while creating a strong password.
- Make your password lengthy
Usually, a lengthy password takes longer to be broken. However, this should also follow other principles to make this strong,” says Rema Deo, Managing Director of 24By7Security, Inc. “Length alone is insufficient.” The goal is for at least eight letters and characters because anything less takes little time to break. The lengthy the password, the more difficult it is to guess.
“However,” Guccione advises, “a lengthy password does not always make it safer.” “To be safe, it must be both lengthy and unique, including a mix of upper and lowercase characters, numbers, and symbols. A password must be between eight to sixteen characters long, but more is always preferable. Many sites need a specific character length, so keep that in mind while generating your passwords.”
- Don’t reuse your password
Most people use the same password for all of their web applications and sites. “It is a widespread and quite serious issue,” Guccione says. “Attackers maintain dictionary lists of the most often used passwords. They also understand that if they effectively break a single account, they will likely access numerous accounts for the same user due to the high frequency of repeated passwords. As a result, the more passwords you reuse, the simpler it is for a hacker to obtain access to every account which has this same password.”
Because security breaches are becoming more regular, it’s a further reason to keep it essential to keep combining to improve your passwords.
- Don’t store passwords in your browser
We understand what you are thinking: storing passwords in your browser means they are always available for you. However, like so many other shortcuts in life, it is simply not worthwhile. Although password managers are security firms intended to secure your data, the same rules do not apply to password management browsers. “Browsers do not protect your passwords, and if an attacker gets access to your device, the passwords saved in your browser open gateway for hackers.
“Besides, passwords saved in a browser cannot be utilized for native apps and are not accessible on other devices or browsers. Passwords saved in a specific browser are not cross-platform, and browsers are not military-grade “vaults” for storing and managing your passwords and other confidential data.”
- Use two-factor authentication
Additional security is a good thing, and two-factor authentication implies that just having your password will not be enough. Two-factor authentication gives an added layer of security to safeguard account access, rendering hacking significantly more complex. A code-generating app on your mobile, a numerical key fob, or a USB key can all be part of the second layer.
“A basic username and password mix has already been stolen and cracked, compromising 12 billion records,” Siciliano claims. “Whether you have two-factor authentication activated, it makes no difference if a hacker has your username and password – they will require your mobile phone to gain access.”
Some Key Takeaways
Passwords are the weak point in any stage of protection for your online accounts. If anybody gains access to your login, your content and crucial information are endangered.
However, many sites nowadays provide additional security protection, anybody who recovers or predicts your password can quickly defeat other security measures that so many websites have in place.
That individual can modify your online accounts, make transactions, and otherwise corrupt your data. Usually, keep a backup of your data just in case.
Choosing a safe password is essential as, let’s face it, we now spend our whole lives online: such as social media, banking, email, shopping, and so on.
Most people make the huge mistake of using the same password for several accounts. It can be easy to recall, but everything might be endangered if one account has a security flaw.
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