3 Dangerous Password Habits You Should Avoid

Creating (and tracking) passwords for our various digital accounts and services might not be anyone's idea of a good time. However, using strong passwords is key to keeping those accounts safe. That's why, along with understanding online password best practices, it's also important to familiarize yourself with mistakes users often make when creating passwords.

Also, keep in mind that passwords aren't the only factor in the equation when protecting your accounts. Depending on the specific accounts, services, and devices you're creating passwords for, you might also enjoy a greater degree of protection by leveraging biometrics and similar access tools. Sometimes, those extra security measures are even required, instead of or along with your password. However, passwords still likely play a prominent role in how you access many or even most of your accounts and devices. As long as you'll still be creating and storing passwords, it's worth learning how to avoid certain errors that could otherwise give hackers a major (and majorly unwanted) leg up.

It's natural to want to incorporate some type of personal detail into a password. Your online passwords might include family names, addresses, birthdays, and other such details that are easy for you to remember. The problem is that these types of details may also be known or available to hackers. By using them in your passwords, you're giving someone trying to access your accounts a better chance of correctly guessing your passwords.

Don't make the mistake of assuming anyone trying to hack into your accounts will be someone who doesn't know you well enough to have access to personal details like your pet's name. In the digital age, you may underestimate how much of this information you've made available via social media and other such online sources. For optimal account safety, it's best to aim for passwords that don't include any details that can be easily or logically linked back to you or your experiences.

It's tempting to use one password for more than one account or service. After all, this practice simplifies the process of keeping track of your passwords. Unfortunately, it can also make it far easier for wrongdoers to access your various accounts. If a hacker correctly guesses the password to one of your accounts, they can use that knowledge to access any other accounts that password is associated with.

This example highlights the importance of weighing convenience versus potential consequences when generating passwords. It's certainly easier to use one password for as many accounts as you reasonably can. However, depending on which accounts that password is associated with, should the password be discovered, the results could range from being impersonated on social media to finding out someone drained your bank account. Guard against this by aiming to create unique passwords for all your accounts. A strong password manager tool can help you keep track of your login info.

On this subject, it's also worth noting that there's an argument to be made that a complex password can do more harm than good. That's because you're almost certainly not going to recall a complex password. As such, if you're not using the right tools to manage your passwords, you might end up writing down that complicated password or saving it somewhere a hacker can access it. Instead, it may be more advisable to create a password featuring a string of words that, while not being directly tied to you, you're more likely to remember.

Hackers have many different potential methods of cracking a user's password. If given enough time, it's very possible for a hacker to find out what your passwords are, even if they have no other connection to you. That's why experts recommend that you update your passwords fairly frequently. Although this might seem like a hassle, if you change your passwords regularly, you stand a better chance of preventing hackers from ever correctly guessing or discovering them.

Similarly, don't recycle old passwords when changing them. Taking your current password and making it just a little different by changing some of the characters or other minor details isn't enough to add sufficient protection. By creating truly new passwords and remembering the other vital points here, you'll help protect your vital information and enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing you're at least not making it easy for hackers to steal everything from your money to your identity.