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We’re told to change our passwords often to minimize getting hacked. Now we’re told this is a bad thing.
But not for any inherent techy reason. It’s because frequent password changing makes many people lower their guard when it comes to creating new passwords.
They get lax and end up with passwords like Bear1, Crazy4uand GetHigh1978. Or, they often only minimally change the password, such as going from Hotbaby!! to Babyhot!!.
Believe it or not, despite an infinite number of permutations involving 26 letters, 10 numbers and 10 symbols, many people struggle to create new passwords beyond just minimally altering existing passwords. And don’t even ask these folks to remember any new and very different, strong passwords.
But if you already have unique, strong and jumbled passwords, you do not have to frequently change them. So if your Facebook password is Ihv1dggnPRvGr8tGamz!, there is no reason to change this 90 days after creating it. However, changing ANY password every six months to a year is still a wise idea. And this infrequency won’t leave you drained.
And you can always use a password manager to do the figuring for you anyways. A password manager will create long, strong and unique passwords, and issue you a single master password.
Rules for a Virtually Uncrackable Password
You can also shorten phrases that pertain to things you love, like for instance, a phrase about your favorite movie, food, vacation, TV show, etc.
This content is provided by an external author without editing by Finextra. It expresses the views and opinions of the author.
Shawn Conahan Chief Revenue Officer at Wildfire Systems, Inc.
15 October
Konstantin Rabin Head of Marketing at Kontomatik
Alexander Boehm Chief Executive Officer at PayRate42
Roman Eloshvili Founder and CEO at XData Group
14 October
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