What The Tech: World Password Day
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The first Thursday of May is “World Password Day”. A reminder and a call to pay close attention to passwords you use for personal accounts and change them if you need to.
Most of us realize that passwords are important to protect our many online accounts yet so many people take the easy way out by using common, simple passwords that anyone guess.
Contrary to popular belief, hackers aren’t solitary figures typing away in dark rooms. They operate in organized groups, using sophisticated software to sift through stolen credentials.
These usernames and passwords, often leaked and sold on the dark web, are tested across various accounts to find a match.
If they find one match, the cyber criminal knows they’ll likely find others.
Troy Hunt, the creator of the website “HaveIBeenPwned,” says using the same password for multiple accounts is ‘normal’. But he warns of the risks associated with reusing passwords and says most people don’t recognize the importance of strong passwords until it is too late.
“It takes a bit of a shift on their behalf to get their head around the risk,” Hunt said from his home in Australia. “And what we find is that someone needs to be the victim of an account takeover before they go ‘Yeah, you know this is actually a bad thing’.”
As cyber threats evolve, so do the methods to combat them. Here are some innovative solutions:
● Passkeys: A step beyond traditional passwords, passkeys use two-factor authentication
and biometric verification, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, to secure accounts.
● Yubikey: This physical NFC device authenticates your login with just a tap of your finger.
● Password Managers: Tools like OnePassword and LastPass remember your passwords so you don’t have to. They use one master password to manage unique passwords for all your accounts.
● Secret Codes: Create a 12-character base password that you can remember and modify it slightly for each account by adding the first two letters of the service’s name.
For example, think of two favorite songs or movies and use the first letter of each word.
