One of the most important things that our devices hold is your accounts. Whether it’s social media platforms, emails, or your bank accounts, you must ensure they are secure at all times. There’s a huge amount of risk and danger that you could face if any of these accounts are breached. Not only are you putting yourself in danger, but also your friends, families, and colleagues.
Keeping these accounts as secure as possible is crucial to avoid falling victim to devastating cyberattacks such as online identity theft, fraud, phishing, and so much more. The best way to keep your accounts locked away and out of the hands of hackers is by using strong and unique passwords.
Remembering these passwords can be a hassle, though. This is why you should use a premium password manager to keep your passwords safely stored away. And if you’re unsure about creating strong and unique passwords or don’t know why you need to use a premium password manager. So, read to the end of this article to find out!
How Cybercriminals Steal Your Passwords
Before we start talking about keeping your accounts secure, let’s first dive into cybercriminals’ tactics to steal your passwords. The main method that hackers use to steal passwords is phishing. Unfortunately, hackers use this same tactic to steal your personal information or banking details. So it has turned into a truly devastating strategy.
In its most basic form, phishing is scams used in emails. The hacker will send a fraudulent email to their victim, urging them to interact with a link or attachment in the email. Once they interact with either a link or attachment, one of two things could happen.
Firstly, it can install malicious software on the victim’s device. Malware, as it’s better known, can manifest itself in many different ways. And with the most common forms are viruses, spyware, and ransomware. However, all forms of malware are dangerous.
Secondly, the link could direct you to a fake website that requires you to type in your login credentials, personal information, or banking information. This website will manipulate with a keylogger that will copy everything typed on the website and provide it directly to the hacker. Allow them to steal any information that has been entered on the site.
Phishing scams have been around for decades
To keep your accounts secure you need know this tactic that has been in use ever since the internet age first began. And also it has claimed millions of victims over the years. However, as people started to catch onto phishing scams. And the hackers knew they had to evolve their tactics to lure more victims into their trap.
Hackers use social engineering to manipulate and deceive their targets into falling for their phishing scams and giving up their login credentials. The most common way they do this is by posing as a person or company that the victim might know and trust.
One example of a modern phishing scam is where the victim receives an email from what they believe to be Netflix. The fraudulent email will replicate a real Netflix email and trick the victim into thinking it is real. In addition, hackers will use emotional triggers to lure their victims into clicking on a fraudulent link. For example, they may inform the victim that they need to update their billing information or risk suspending their account.
Clicking on the link will take the victim to a login page with the installed keylogger. Any victim’s login credentials on the website will be provided directly to the cybercriminal, allowing them to hack your account.
How to Create Strong and Unique Passwords to Keep Your Accounts Secure
The problem is that many people use the same passwords for multiple accounts because it’s much easier to remember. However, once a hacker steals one password, they can break into multiple accounts using the same login credentials. This is why it’s crucial to have unique passwords for all of your accounts! When you equip your accounts with unique passwords, it will be much more difficult for hackers to breach multiple accounts simultaneously.
But you might wonder what it means to create “strong” passwords. Most internet users will create passwords related to their personal information. Anything from their names, birthdays, and even the names of their pets, and they often uses them to create passwords. Unfortunately, while these might be easy to remember, they also put your accounts at risk.
Hackers are excellent researchers who could uncover some of these details with enough digging. For example, using your social media accounts and other sources of information on the internet. And a hacker could potentially guess your password and break into your account.
Research has shown that the strongest passwords are made up of random letters, symbols, and numbers that do not relate to you. You also need to ensure that your passwords are longer than 8 characters. You can even use random words to create passwords if you don’t feel like creating a complex “code.”
How to Keep Track of Your Passwords to Keep Your Accounts Secure
Users tend to create passwords they can not consider “strong” because they want to create passwords that will be easier to remember. That’s where a password manager comes in handy.
Although you are already using the default password manager your device or browser offers, it is essential to note that they are not secure. It’s still easy for a skilled hacker to break into these password managers and gain access to all of your login credentials.
Cybersecurity experts recommend investing in premium password managers. These password managers can only be accessed using a master key. Only the user who created the account has access to the master key. And whenever an unauthorized or unknown device tries to log into the password manager, it is also good to have the key. As a result, premium password managers act as virtual vaults. And making it impossible for cybercriminals to break into as long as you keep your vault’s master key safe.
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