Today is National Change Your Password Day.
Hope you got your special someone something nice.
Yes, this is yet another made-up holiday pushed by the cybersecurity industry.
On top of that, it comes just days after Sunday’s celebration ofData Privacy Day.
That said, you don’t have to mark today by changing all your passwords.
For years, security professionals recommended that consumers change their passwords every few months.
Sign up for apassword manager.
Both free and paid options are available.
At that point, you don’t have to worry so much about password-cracking software.
Throwing a special character, such as a symbol or punctuation mark, in the middle won’t hurt.
Don’t use your birthday or another significant personal date, because cybercriminals can find them easily.
Song titles and famous quotations are also bad ideas.
So limit the fallout by making sure you set unique passwords for all your accounts.
Sure, that could be a lot to handle, since we’re recommending 16-character or longer passphrases.
But they all agree you should change them right away at any hint of compromise.
Keep your details off social media.The more personal details you post, the more cybercriminals know about you.
Yes, that’ll slow you down as you get into the account.
But it’s worth it to keep your account safe.
If a criminal gets control of your phone number, they’ll get your 2FA text message, too.
