You may not have known already, but today is the 10th annual Safer Internet Day.
As part of the festivities, it’s important to keep up to date with anti-virus and anti-malware solutions, as well as being aware of what privacy functions are available on different social media sites you interact with. Anti-virus software, among other benefits, can help you guard against identity theft.
Here’s a link to some great tips on how to be safer online.
However, one tip that’s missing from the story is in regards to passwords.
First and foremost, be certain that the passwords you use are considered “Strong Passwords.” Typically, these are at least 12 characters, include numbers and symbols (assuming the systems you’re logging into permits) and avoids sequences (such as 12345). More guidelines can be found here.
Second, our research has indicated that a large number of people use the same password for every site they transact with. While this should seem obvious, losing your password for one site means you’ve lost it for every site, many people continue to do this. We understand it can be difficult to remember a different password for every site that houses your personal information. But the alternatives can be dire.
Let’s start to make the Internet a safer place today.