3 Password Practices to Avoid

3 Password Practices to Avoid

Developing and maintaining strong passwords is an important part of a good PC maintenance routine, but a lot of PC users end up victims of hacking and identity theft because of poor password management. A survey recently found that 61 percent of consumers always or often use the same password for multiple accounts, applications or sites. You should think hard before reusing your passwords. If a hacker infiltrates one site through a security hole and is able to steal login credentials, they could potentially breach every account for which you’ve used that information.

The survey found two promising signs that show some consumers are taking password protection seriously: 77 percent of respondents said they used passwords on their phones and 47 percent said they use two-factor authentication to further protect online accounts. While this is a step in the right direction, there are still several egregious errors that consumers often make, reported ABC 7 News:

1. Picking a password that is easy to guess: While this goes against one of the most common rules for passwords, it’s still seen surprisingly often. It’s best to come up with a password that is seemingly random or nonsensical, yet memorable enough for you to recall when needed. One example is to string together one or two lines of song lyrics.
2. Answering security questions with accurate answers: On banking sites or other places where companies want to keep accounts secure, it’s common to have you answer several questions to verify your identity. The problem is that if the answers are accurate – like actual place of birth, high school, mother’s maiden name – then it’s easy for someone to find that information and enter it, bypassing that security protection. Instead, answer the question in a way that is unique but still memorable. Even using an abbreviation or slight modification can make a big difference.
3. Writing down passwords, login information: You may be tempted to create a spreadsheet or document that lists accounts, sites and password data, but this can have devastating consequences if a computer is infected with malware or hacked. Use a password key instead that stores encrypted data so that passwords can’t be stolen.

“The biggest thing people don’t realize is when you are infected with a virus the first thing the virus normally does is dumps all of your saved passwords and sends them to the bad guys on the Internet, within milliseconds,” explained David Pollino, a fraud prevention officer at Bank Of the West.

This also underscores the importance of installing a virus scanner than can eliminate viruses and malware before they have a chance to compromise your password information. This, combined with smart password practices, can help ensure that you are much more secure from cyber attacks.

The antivirus software built into System Mechanic Pro has been evolving and refining its advanced heuristics for nearly two decades. System Mechanic Pro is an antivirus/anti-malware solution that regularly and automatically updates to catch the latest threat definitions, maintaining an ever-expanding roster of specific malware signatures and suspicious behaviors to help keep your PC secure.