Are You Changing Your Passwords On A Regular Basis? (You Should Be)

Changing Your Passwords Regularly

Think about how many different services and apps you have an account with. Think about how many have your credit card information or your address. All it takes is for one of those to be breached and your data will have been compromised.

And make no mistake, the rate of data breached around the world is rising year after year. You hear about data breaches, identity theft and more on a seemingly daily basis.

4IQ recently published a report that lists a number of alarming statistics about how cybercrime is becoming more and more common:

• There were 12,499 confirmed data breaches in 2018 – a 424% increase when compared to 2017.
• The average breach compromised 216,884 records.
• 14.9 billion stolen identity records were exchanged by cybercriminals online.

How Can You Protect Yourself?

• Update Your Passwords: Say a site you’ve signed up for and made purchases from, or planned to make purchases from, gets hacked. Whatever password you had used for it is no longer secure.

  The good news is that there’s a simple way to protect against this – change your passwords on a regular basis. That way, it doesn’t matter if a hacker has an old password from three years ago from that website you don’t use.

• Don’t Use Identical Passwords: If you’re not repeating passwords, then you won’t be vulnerable to further breaches when a hacker gets your info.

  But that’s easier said than done, right? As we explored above, you have a lot of different accounts – so how can you be expected not to repeat a memorable password here or there?

  It may be nearly impossible to do on your own, which is why you should use a Password Manager. A password manager generates, keeps track of and retrieves complex and long passwords for you to protect your vital online information.

  It also remembers your PINS, credit card numbers and three-digit CVV codes if you choose this option. Plus, it provides answers to security questions for you. All of this is done with strong encryption that makes it difficult for hackers to decipher.

Passwords grant you access to your email accounts, your office systems, and programs, your banking information, your social media… your life pretty much runs on passwords. Don’t put yourself at risk by using the same old password for every account you use.