Strong Passwords, Strong Financial Security
9/15/23 | Lindsie Wharff, Marketing Specialist
The age of the internet has made mobile and online banking a necessary tool for managing our finances. We love the convenience of having our accounts in our pockets, but sometimes, we lack the initiative to take the necessary steps to keep our accounts safe. Especially, when it comes to creating a strong password. The requirements may seem ridiculous, and the urgency to create a unique password for all your online accounts can be overwhelming. We’re here to help!
What Are Passwords And Why Do They Matter?
Consider passwords a basic defense against unauthorized access to accounts, devices, and files. Weak passwords, like the infamous ‘password1234,” are easy to guess. The stronger your password is, the more protected the account, devices, and files will be.
4 Common Password Myths Debunked
- Numbers and special characters will automatically make a password stronger.
While combining letters, numbers, and special characters can create a strong password, it doesn’t guarantee safety, especially if you reuse the same password for multiple accounts.
- You should focus on complexity.
It’s recommended that individuals change their passwords every 90 days. Having complex passwords can cause headaches and insecure practices such as pasting passwords to documents. Secure tools are available online to help determine how long attackers can take to figure out your password.
- Easy-to-remember passwords are better.
It’s easy to rely on passwords you can quickly recall or to use variations of the same password. However, a simple social media search can discover information such as your birthday, pet's name, or street address.
- Password managers are unsafe.
Password management solutions are safe to use as they use encryption to generate and store passwords or passphrases for your accounts. They can also notify you if your password was involved in recent data breaches.
How can I create a strong password?
There are plenty of methods you can use to develop strong passwords you can remember. It doesn’t have to be a boring process. Here are some of our favorite methods:
- The Story Time Method
Use uncommon words such as proper nouns, archaic words, historical figures, or even words in multiple languages. You can help yourself remember your new phrase by building a story out of your chosen words. After coming up with the words, add special characters. Try to avoid using underscores during this step.
Example: Shakespeare-Leonardo-Dodecahedron-Saturn-Grazie
William Shakespeare and Leonardo da Vinci met to play a game with their dodecahedron dice while gazing at Saturn through a stranger’s telescope. To express their appreciation to the stranger, they both said Grazie.
- The Sentence Method
This method transforms a sentence into a password using a rule you create. You can help yourself remember your sentence by choosing a phrase that has meaning to you. Remember to keep the rule within reason.
Example: A-LEvE-TI-Rood-Buuksp-And-Leern
Take the sentence, “I Love To Read Books and Learn.” Switch up the order of the vowels and replace the spaces with special characters.
- The Quote Method
Pick a random quote from a song, movie, speech, or book. Avoid heavily used quotes, such as “No, I am your Father,” from the Star Wars franchise. You can apply a rule to the password, like The Sentence Method. Just remember to keep the rule within reason.
Example: S-Pm-Ogly-Nnd-G-Em-Yroud
This is the quote, “I am ugly, and I am proud,” from SpongeBob SquarePants. The rule of the password replaced every capital letter with letters from letters from the word “Spongey.”
Always remember the main goal of a password is to protect your information. Avoid making yourself an easy target by using weak passwords. Try your best to make each password unique. If you have a hard time remembering, you can always use a safe password manager like Google Password Manager or iCloud Keychain to keep track of your passwords. These tools can help you keep track of your passwords as well as any data breaches that may be affecting your security.
Your financial security is our top priority. Following these practices can enhance your password security and protect your financial well-being.