Redmond provides tips to keep your online accounts protected

Sep 6, 2014 06:39 GMT  ·  By

You probably hear this a lot, but coming from a company like Microsoft, it’s really worth listening. Redmond recently published a blog post that provides some very simple recommendations to those looking for information on how to keep their online data protected, unveiling five of the passwords that they should never use for email or any other accounts.

Posted by Microsoft’s Eve Blakemore, these recommendations are nothing different from what we’ve heard before, but they still serve as living proof that some people continue to use extremely easy-to-crack passwords despite all reports pointing to stolen data.

As expected, Microsoft says that it’s mandatory to avoid using “password” as your account password and it’s easy to see what. “Letmein,” “monkey,” or “12345678” are also among the common passwords that people are using these days, even though it’s very clear that when they’re trying to break into someone’s account, hackers are trying these first before anything else.

Five passwords you should never use

Here are the five passwords that you should avoid, along with the tips provided by Microsoft:

“Password. Believe it or not, this is still a common password. Don’t use it.

Letmein. We recommend that you use passphrases that are memorable. Just don’t use this one. It ranks high on several lists of the most-used passwords.

Monkey. This common word appears on many lists of popular passwords. It’s also too short. Make passwords at least eight characters—the longer the better.

Your pet’s name. While you’re at it, don’t use any passwords that can be easily guessed, such as the name of your spouse or partner, your nickname, birth date, address, or driver's license number.

12345678. Avoid this and other sequences or repeated characters such as 222222, abcdefg, or adjacent letters on your keyboard (such as qwerty).”

Other tips to keep your account secure

In addition, Microsoft also says that it would really help to avoid using the same password on multiple websites. In case one of your account gets hacked, cybercriminals might attempt to break into your other ones using the same credentials, so using a different password clearly makes their mission a lot more difficult.

And last but not least, changing passwords regularly is strongly recommended, especially when working with sensitive information and details that no one should access.

The biggest problem when working with so many passwords, however, is the fact that it’s really difficult to remember all of them and trying each every time you attempt to log in might in the end get your accounts suspended temporarily.

In this case, a password manager really comes in handy and there are really plenty of them out there, some of which come with state-of-the-art security features and built-in password generators to make sure that no one would ever get access to your accounts.

If third-party add-ons or browser plug-ins aren’t your cup of tea, you might want to have a look at Softpedia’s password manager software category to choose one that suits your needs.