Essential Password Security | Part One | Video Series

password_Security_Thumbnail_YT

Essential Password Security | Part One | Video Series

password_Security_Thumbnail_YT

Hello friends! I’m recording this as the first of a short series of videos to talk about your security. Anytime I mention cybersecurity to a friend, I can see them start to get overwhelmed at just the thought of it. But I believe that, in a matter of minutes, I can give you some ground rules that will drastically improve your ability to be more secure at home and work.

I want to explain how to choose better passwords, explain what multi factor authentication is and why it is important, and teach you how to use some tools to organize yourself.

How Do I Protect My Accounts?

Let’s start here – You are almost certainly not secure enough. Here are some parameters you should follow:

  • All of your passwords should be at least 16 if not 25 or more characters, and for most passwords, you want to use as many characters as they’ll let you use.
  • Every single password you use should be unique.
  • Don’t save your passwords in any place that might reasonably be accessible by anyone else.
  • Use MFA on every account you can, and it matters which method of MFA is used.

Have I Been Hacked?

Lastly, I’m sure you have not followed that second rule, so I want you to go check out haveibeenpwned.com. Put in each of your email accounts, personal and work, and the site will tell you if that email address is related to a known breach. For example, Evite had a data breach in 2019 of over 100 million email addresses. It also included names, phone numbers, dates of birth, and passwords going all the way back to 2013. Even if you changed that password, if you ever used it anywhere else, bad guys now know that password is one that you use.

Okay, overwhelmed yet? I know this may seem impossible at face value, but in my next video, I’ll share some easy ground rules that will immediately make a big difference.