Splash Data recently released its list of the worst passwords of 2013. The good news is that “password” is no longer the most-popular password on the Internet. The bad news is that it’s still the second-most common—and “123456” is the first. Slate has a funny article about what your password says about you.
All jokes aside, securing your password is possibly the single most important thing you can do to secure your data, particularly your CMS. It is incredibly easy for a hacker to apply a script that is guessing your password to get into your CMS and wreak havoc.
Take the threat seriously. This article from PC Mag has some great tips on how to create a strong password.
Don’t wait another day to start putting some of those practices in place. Excuses like, “But I want one password for all of my sites so that I won’t forget!” or “My (generic) password is good enough, and what are the odds that someone is really going to try to hack me?” are not acceptable. All you need is one breach and you’ll regret the day you didn’t take password security more seriously.
Better yet, use an online password manager. A popular option is 1Password. It will generate a unique, ultra-secure password for each site you visit. You need to remember only one master password – the program does the rest.
Now get to work securing your passwords!
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