It seems nowadays that everything needs a password, from paying your household bills to speaking to a customer service assistant on the phone. Companies have taken steps to make sure your password is secure, from asking you to change your password regularly to providing strict password guidelines, like asking for an upper case letter and punctuation to be included. But why is it such a big deal? Is it all a fuss about nothing? Would 12345 be fine? Unfortunately not, and at 1st Call Detectives we take your online security really seriously.

Hackers are smart, we all know this, so outsmarting them by creating impossible to crack passwords is really important, here’s why. 

One password = multiple problems

With a rise in security breaches from companies like Yahoo and Ashley Madison, it is more important than ever to make sure you use more than one password per site. If a hacker gets hold of one password for something small, like an old email account, and you’ve used the password consistently then it’s super easy for them to get into other accounts. These might be far more serious, and any account you have using the compromised password is vulnerable to hackers. 

Identity theft

Identity fraud is a real and present threat and a weak password could lead to someone impersonating you and cause a whole wealth of trouble. Obviously being careful with how much information you divulge online and keeping up high security practices on social media is equally important, and we’ve got a great blog post on this for you too. However, if your password is guessed or found by online fraudsters then all of this information is suddenly accessible to them. Keeping your personal information safe is extremely important and using a bad password for all of your online accounts is not worth the risk. Once a hacker has your personal information they can use it in a number of ways to harm you. Often this includes selling the personally identifiable information through underground markets, which then can be used to apply for loans or credit under your name, tax fraud or creating counterfeit accounts and transferring money. 

Saving isn’t safe

Though it might seem super easy to save passwords on your computer or in your browser, it also makes it super easy for hackers. If they get access to your computer and all of your accounts are already logged in, then it’s incredibly easy for them to access all your important accounts, information and steal these. That’s also the case with writing down passwords or saving them on your computer, as we said before, once one password is known and it’s used for multiple accounts you’re putting yourself at real risk.

Are passwords that important?

A 2015 study showed that passwords are the most valuable piece of personal information to people, placed at $75.80 US dollars. Your online passwords are the key to so much information and potential risk, that it’s vital you keep your passwords safe and stay smart online against possible hackers. Not only do passwords give access to your online accounts, they can also be used to access files on your computer or send messages and spam from your account, putting your family and colleagues at risk too. 

So what can you do about it?

Quite a lot thankfully. There has been a lot of research into how to protect yourself online through your passwords so here are our most important tips. 

Keep your passwords private, don’t share them with others or write them down. Though it might seem easy to get a friend to enter your information for you, you have no idea what their own security is like or what the impact of that is, so be smart and keep your passwords to yourself. 

Create longer passwords. Each character in a password makes it harder for hackers to crack, think of it like a combination lock, the more numbers the harder to crack the combination. When you add in punctuation, both letters and numbers and upper and lower cases, it makes it even harder for hackers to crack with their software.

Keep it impersonal

As we said before, your personal information is incredibly valuable to hackers. Stay away from words easily associated with you, like the name of your school or your pet’s name. This also applies to dates, with some secure sites, like online banking requiring a pin, don’t use your birthday or something easy to guess, stick to random numbers.

If you’re struggling to think of something, there are loads of online tips for creating super secure passwords, as well as random password generators with customisable options. 

Your personal privacy and security is hugely important and at 1st Call Detectives we do everything possible to keep our clients’ information secure. If you’re concerned you might have been a victim of fraud, or you have concerns we can help with, our expert team are here to help. Contact us here for more information about our services or phone us on 07017 411 007 to talk about your case. We value customer privacy, which is why we also have an encryption certificate on our website.