Do you, like millions of netizens, struggle to manage your digital life? While handling login credentials for dozens of social media accounts can be a nightmare, there are ways to protect your password without any headache.
How? The first protective measure is to set really strong passwords that are unique to each of your accounts, However, this is not enough. Just like your important documents, your passwords must be encrypted and tucked away in a safe place.
There are ways to do this physically, and also virtually! In this article, you can get all the information you need to manage passwords as a home user or a business.
Set Up Strong and Unique Passwords for Each Online Account
It is a no-brainer that the first step to protecting your digital accounts is by setting up strong passwords. It is ideal to set up passwords that contain at least 16 characters - flaunting a concoction of numbers, symbols, and upper and lowercase letters. If you are confused, you can resort to strong random password generators available online.
It is recommended to never use the same password for multiple accounts. You should change your passwords regularly. You can use two-factor authentication or other multi-level protection to further secure your online presence.
Robust login credentials are essential for ensuring your data stays out of reach for hackers. A good digital citizen would use unique alphanumeric codes for each of his social media passwords. However, it can get quite difficult to keep track of all your unique passwords. So, what’s the solution?
Secure Analog Storage of Your Social Media Password
Your passwords are valuable, so you need to treat them that way. One of the options is to have a locked spreadsheet online. However, this method is quite vulnerable to hacker attacks.
A much safer approach would be to treat it the same way you would handle your sensitive physical documents: Put them in a locker. Make an extensive written list of all your social media passwords, and then put the list in a safe deposit box.
Even though this step may seem a little extra, it’s a great way to keep all of your passwords in one place without having to worry about getting hacked. If you find this method troublesome, there are digital alternatives too.
Subscribe to a Password Manager: 1Password
Password managers are a boon for everyone struggling to remember all of the complicated passwords. You can take the extra measure to get a premium account with a popular brand such as 1Password.
1Password will cost you $2.99 for a month or $4.99 per month for a family plan, but the benefit you will receive in return is priceless. If you are unsure, you can avail the 30-day free trial first before making the monthly commitment.
Once you finish creating your 1Password account and master password, you can proceed to save all your other passwords into the digital vault through the browser extension, website, or app.
In addition to generating strong passwords, the Watchtower feature will hint when you have weak or duplicated passwords, and also provide warnings against compromised websites. What’s more? Certain vaults can be marked as safe for travel in the Travel Mode while other sensitive information can be removed for that period.
Use a Free Password Manager: LastPass
If you do not fancy spending on a paid password manager, you can store them in a freemium digital vault such as LastPass. This offers similar functions to 1Password and is available on desktop and Android and iOS devices.
You can install extensions for your browser and create a new account. Create a memorable yet strong master code and then save all of your passwords in LastPass.
The software will securely fill-in login credentials when you open social media sites. In addition to helping you create hacker-proof passwords, LastPass will test and help you fix the weak passwords.
As the free version is still quite vulnerable, you can upgrade your LastPass account for just $24 a year. The multi-factor authentication in the premium version offers better security. You can also share passwords and Wi-Fi logins with others.
The Bottom Line
If you assign strong and unique passwords to each of your accounts and then save the passwords with a good password manager software, you ought to feel invincible in the digital space.
