Vulnerable due to weak passwords

If you want to protect yourself from criminal attacks from the net, you have to choose a secure password. Weak passwords automatically increase the risk. Only a few companies actually succeed in enforcing the policy for these good passwords. Most of the time, the user chooses a password that is too weak. However, good and strong passwords can also be generated. When choosing passwords, there are now possibilities and options for intelligent support.

Privacy and weak passwords

Anyone who wants to protect themselves from unauthorized access uses the typical password procedure on the Internet. Nevertheless, passwords are still used traditionally, so security is relatively low. Anyone who relies on an insecure password will have problems at some point. These also arise in terms of data protection law.

Especially in times of the home office, it becomes obvious how critical such insecure passwords can be. The security of the connection is also in danger, for example, with a VPN network, when communication should actually take place exclusively between the home office and the company network. A secure password should be chosen especially for VPN access.

Typical guidelines and rules

There are some guidelines that help to choose a secure password. For example, it should be at least ten characters long and contain numbers, upper case letters, lower case letters and special characters. A good password is best if it cannot be found in any dictionary. Unfortunately, there is always a data leak on the net, so that passwords and user accounts can be found in so-called public lists. These lists are distributed accordingly on the Internet. However, such accesses are particularly sensitive when it comes to online banking. This makes it all the more important to use a strong password for online behavior.

The stolen password

There are three reasons why thieves can get hold of important passwords, for example:

·       A data leak in combination with a poorly chosen password

·       A data leak from a major online company

·       Successful phishing attacks

This makes it all the more important to stay safe on the Internet and to choose a password that is suitable for this purpose.

It is best that such a password does not contain a mere sequence of numbers or alphabetical letters. The more sensitive the access, the stronger the password should be. It is helpful not to use the same password for all portals. After the first login to an online provider, the password should be changed. For beneficial use, it is also possible to use a special password manager. Meanwhile, the two-factor method is often used for login. This means that you have to identify yourself in two ways when you want to log in. Two-factor authentication is often used. Nevertheless, a secure password should also be used with this method.