Stay safe online - blog two - passwords

Protecting yourself when you go online is a necessity. With a world of information accessible at your fingertips, it is easy to get caught up in the ease of accessibility and on-demand information available. However, you don’t want your personal details to be easily accessible for everyone else. Our ‘stay safe online’ blog series will share tips that you can utilise going forward to protect yourself when interacting with the online world.

Today’s blog will cover:

Why is it important to stay safe when creating and storing passwords?

Passwords are the best way to keep your information safe. It is the access key to all your accounts, whether it be social media, banking, e-commerce sites or simply your emails. And inside those accounts are your important personal details. It is important to make sure your passwords are not easily guessable by others, and that they are stored securely.

What is a strong password?

Strong passwords are codes that nobody would guess. They are unique, long, and contain a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and characters. If you cannot think of your own, you can find many random password generators online.

Where can I store my passwords?

Once you have made your password robust, complex and completely random, you could question “how will I remember all of this…?” This is where password managers can come in. Not only do they encrypt, secure and store your passwords and sensitive data, they also have a password generator function too. You only need one master password to unlock the credentials of your online accounts as well as two factor authentication (2FA).

What is 2FA?

2FA is a multi-factor authentication that strengthens security and access to sensitive information by requiring two authentication factors to confirm it is indeed you. Often it could be a text to your mobile, a unique code to input from your email address and on occasions, it could even be a phone call.

Here are some of our favourite password tools:

Dashlane: Password generator and manager
1Password: Password generator and manager for Mac and iOS
LastPass: Password generator and manager

Hopefully, you will find our series on staying safe online useful, and if something from TAB does not look right, make sure you get in touch with us to double check!

Stay tuned to read more about staying safe online in this blog series.

This online blog series is an introduction to online safety and designed to raise awareness of the challenges of interacting online. This article is for information only and does not constitute advice or a personal recommendation. When it comes to online activity it is important to be cautious and seek appropriate professional advice.