The first Thursday in May is World Password Day, the day we remind ourselves of the importance of making our digital lives more secure. For better or worse, almost everything we do is connected, connected to the Internet and is digital: our phones are our car and house keys, every penny we have is behind a few banking passwords, and all our work is and reputation can be destroyed by accessing just a couple of social media accounts.
It’s more important than ever to keep our accounts and digital devices as secure as possible. But, of course, security must be comfortable Plus, you’re not going to enter a 45-character alphanumeric passcode every time you want to unlock your iPhone!
With that in mind, here are three simple tips to make your digital life more secure. Some of them can be done in a matter of minutes, others may take some time to set up, but they are quick and convenient after you do it, but they all help make sure you don’t get into trouble.
Use complex, unique passwords
Every security expert will tell you that the biggest problem is not that hackers are super-skilled, but that most of the time they don’t have to work very hard because people use wrong passwords and the same passwords for different purposes.
Just look at the most common passwords for 2022:
- password
- 123456
- 123456789
- guest
- qwerty
It doesn’t take any skill or ingenuity to guess one of them in seconds. You also shouldn’t use your children’s birthdays, anniversaries, the name of a pet, or any other set of numbers or words that are related to your real life.
Instead, experts advise using long, multi-word passwords. phrase, if you will be. Something like super-sonic-headphones or walter-white-is-heisenberg hacking a computer is much more difficult than vNe3R#1! because cracking passwords by brute force becomes much more difficult as the password becomes longerNo stranger.
You must also use a different password for each of your accounts without exception. Huge lists of stolen passwords are often sold and traded among hackers, where they are then verified against millions of sites and services. If one of your accounts is compromised and you change your password, you can bet that same password will be used on many other sites and services for years to come.
Using long and complex passwords, different for each account, is a huge problem – you will never remember them all. That’s where password managers come in! They help you store and fill out passwords on all your devices, and can also fill in data such as addresses and payment forms. Check out our list of the best password managers for our recommendations, or you can use the one that’s built into your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. A good password manager makes your life easier and more secure, and it’s worth the time to set it up.
Take advantage of biometrics
Biometric password features such as Face ID and Touch ID are not secure, but they are much more Stronger crack than a string of six digits, and are much harder to sell and sell than large password lists.
You should change your iPhone or iPad passcode to a real passcode and make it a good one, then use Face ID or Touch ID so you don’t have to enter it all the time. Do it wherever possible: Use large, complex, unique passwords for your primary password manager, for example, and let Face ID or Touch ID do the hard work of unlocking it for you.
Apple, Microsoft and Google team up to allow biometric logins without passwords through their websites and services. Called Passkey, this initiative is supported on Apple devices starting with macOS 13 and iOS/iPadOS 16 and is starting to be used across other sites and services. For example, you can now sign in to your Google account with a password.
Protect every account with 2FA where possible
Two-factor authentication (2FA), also called multi-factor authentication (MFA), is when you must provide a password And something else – a short one-time code sent to you in a text message or generated by a special application, or, for example, a fingerprint or face scan.
This is a really great way to secure your account. Every time your password is entered correctly on a new device (for example, when a hacker tries to use it), you must enter the code sent to you in text or generated by the app. The code can only be used once and is valid for a very short time. Thus, even if a hacker steals or guesses your password, he is unlikely to be able to gain access to your account.
Using SMS (texts) for this is common and convenient as it doesn’t require an app, but SIM hacking and other methods can sometimes allow hackers to target individuals and access their texts, making this less secure than using 2FA applications such as Auth. , Google Authenticator, or Duo Mobile.
Apple has its own 2FA system for your Apple ID, which you must definitely included as many Apple services require it. Here’s how to set up 2FA with your Apple ID. You’ll want to enable 2FA for every other account you have, especially bank accounts and accounts where you can make purchases (such as gaming services). Check out our 2FA getting started guide to learn more.
And if you want maximum security, you can lock your Apple ID with a security key if you’re running iOS 16.3 or macOS Venture 13.2 or later. Instead of a code, you will have a physical key (actually two) that stores your authentication and which cannot be stolen or faked remotely.