The Heartbleed vulnerability got people thinking about passwords — a lot. In a recent survey*, we found that 57 percent of respondents had changed their passwords after learning about the bug that affected some of the web’s largest sites.
But it may not take a massive software flaw to make your accounts vulnerable to hackers. Many of us break the essential password rule all the time by not using unique and strong passwords on all your most important accounts.
Are you helping online criminals?
Do you use the most popular terrible passwords on the internet — “123456″ or “password”? Are you using names of your family or pets that you may be sharing on your Facebook? Is the name of you easily guessable favorite star, team or movie securing your private data?
If so, you’re not alone, according to our survey:
When most people have at least 20 passwords to remember, it makes sense that people try to keep it simple. But simple isn’t always smart. That’s why we developed F-Secure Key — the one password that rules them all. It’s a password manager that automatically generates the kind of strong, unique passwords you need for all your crucial accounts.
Be smart and good luck.
[Image by Nasuni via Flickr]
Guest Blogger: Sandra, from F-Secure
We write about our real-life experiences and try to give you helpful tips on security issues whether it be safe online shopping, ensuring that you don’t lose precious digital photos or making sure your kids don’t get exposed to inappropriate content. We are F-Secure, a company with over 20 years experience in Internet security. Visit F-Secure’s Safe & Savvy blog.
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Thanks for the advice regarding passwords!!!! I MUST pass this along to a friend who tells me all the time that she uses the same pw for EVERYTHING!!!!!
That’s definitely not a safe approach. Easy, yes—but it could really cost her in the long run. You wouldn’t use the same key to your bank vault, your house, your credit card, etc. so you shouldn’t do it online either! You’re a good friend for trying to help her avert disaster :-).