It may sound like an obvious one, you may have to do it at work on a regular basis, but how often do you change you personal login details? Here are a few tips to think about and also to guide you:
- Firstly, try to get into the habit of changing you passwords on a regular basis - Monthly would be ideal. Make sure this includes your online banking details, social media accounts, household bills accounts, Paypal and anything else that holds your personal information.
- If possible try not to have the same password for all your accounts - try to split them up a bit. The worry is that if one account got hacked (say your email) and you had the same password for another (your Facebook account) both accounts will be compromised.
- Dont use personal data - date of births, phone numbers, etc. The thing to realise is that people who want to hack into your accounts will try your personal data first.
- Get creative with your password! You can pick the simplest of words and make it into a strong and secure password. Here is an example:
password1 (a basic one, that we would never recommend anyone use!)
And below, are 3 variations:
- Pa5Sword1 (this contains capital letters and the number 5)
- pa$%WORD?1 (combining numbers, capitials and other symbols)
- p&55word@on£ (as above, swapping letter for numbers, adding in various symbols and this time, typing the word one with a pound sign)
- Try not to use the password "remember" features. We know it makes things convenient but many people in the industry say they aren't safe. It only takes a couple of seconds to log into a website and could save you a lot of unnecessary worry.
- Any website that you have to log in to.....always make sure you log out before you leave!