If you’re in any way vigilant about online security, you undoubtedly have a different, complicated password for every protected online resource that you use. Also, because you’re vigilant, you might sometimes have trouble remembering passwords. But weak passwords won’t stand up to security issues from hackers.
Passwords are a pain, but strong passwords are also a necessary means of defense against hackers who won’t stop at anything to gain access to your accounts.
It’s worth the time and effort to keep hackers off-balance with smart, strong passwords that (hopefully) you can still remember. Hackers excel at exploiting weaknesses, and they have the time and the tools to keep hacking away.
The most common password in 2019 (which did not change from 2018) was 123456. Other common passwords included 123456789 and qwerty.
Anyone using any of these passwords are just begging to be hacked.
Hackers are everywhere, and they are constantly looking for your password vulnerabilities to attack.
To protect your passwords, here are eight common password mistakes to avoid:
These are all great helpful hints to keep you away from being hacked, which can often lead to an even worse turn of events, like identity theft or data theft/loss.
Brute force attacks are when hackers try to overpower your defenses, attempting combinations of usernames and passwords with software that recombines English dictionary words with thousands of variations in an attempt to access your website.
While WordPress is the most popular CMS, and therefore the most targeted for brute force attacks, other CMS platforms and login systems are also vulnerable to attack.
Avoid the default “admin” name for WordPress and other login systems. Hackers will always try using “admin.”
Also, don’t use common names or even your website name as the username. As tempting as it is to think a hacker won’t be able to spell your difficult last name, he/she can always cut and paste it from another source.
Social engineering is a malicious tactic hackers use to manipulate their targets into divulging sensitive and confidential information. Social engineering can happen across many different platforms, including email, social media, and even the phone. Social engineering, when paired with spear phishing, can be extremely effective to unwary targets that are not on the lookout.
The entire point of social engineering attacks is to gain confidential information that could be used to gain access to systems, steal data, or steal your identity.
Website logins can be set to have either unlimited or a set number of login attempts. It never hurts to limit the number of login attempts you can make to access your site. Not only will this eliminate the threat of brute force attacks, but it keeps hackers from attempting to access their site through manual password entry from socially engineered attacks.
If you are using WordPress, you can download a plugin to do this for you, or even whitelist/blacklist specific IPs for access/denial of access. This way, you can be sure legitimate users can access your site while malicious hackers cannot.
Here are the top eight security best practices for passwords in 2020:
The above password best practices will help you further secure your site. Granted, thorough password protection isn’t a quick task, but it’s worth the time and effort to keep hackers off their game while safeguarding your site and customer data from theft.
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