1. Your password is easy as 123
If your password is as easy to guess as the name of your pet — and you’ve posted photos of your pet with her name on Facebook 27 times already.
You’re not alone, using your pet’s name as a password is very common, but if you’re posting the name on social media, you are making it very easy for cyber criminals to break into your accounts.
The best passwords are:
2. You haven’t changed your password since Clinton was in office
Seriously. You may have heard it before, but you should definitely change your password more frequently than the U.S. changes presidents.
Most experts recommend you change your password every 6 months.
To help you remember to update your passwords, consider changing them on dates that have meaning to you. For example, change your if you have a summer birthday, you could change your passwords every time you have a birthday and then again around the winter holiday season.
3. You click on everything
It’s fun to keep up with the latest posts and follow all of the links people share on social media, but don’t click everything you see posted on Facebook or Twitter!
Think before you click of you may be installing nefarious software when you view that strange web page. If an ad looks too good to be true, or a post seems suspicious, you it’s probably more likely to install a bad program on your computer than win you a free iPad.
4. You think you’re safer because you won’t reveal your phone number
Google, Twitter, PayPal, and many other sites now invite you to enter a cell phone number to add another layer of security to your account.
After you enter your number, these sites send you an instant text message with a special code that you have to enter to confirm you’re really you.
This may seem invasive at first, but it’s actually an excellent way to add a level of security to your account that makes it very hard for anyone else to break into your account. That is, unless you lose your cell phone… You do have a good password on your cellphone, right?
5. You use the same password for all your accounts
Sure, it makes it easier for you to remember, but it also means that if someone breaks into one of your accounts, they can then break into all the rest.
Change them up, at least a little. If you like my password example of SparkeyMain197, consider at least adding a code for each site to your favorite password.
For example, your Facebook variation could be SparkeyMain197FB, and your Twitter version could be, SparkeyMain197TW.
Remember, the best passwords are easy for you to remember, but hard for anyone else to guess.