12 Scams of the Holiday Season: Safeguard, Manage Online Passwords
Keeping passwords secure should always be top of mind when accessing online accounts, but with a heightened number of scams during the holiday season, it’s a great time to review best practices for safeguarding and managing key account credentials.
As a part of our 12 Scams of the Holiday Season series, we’re offering you tips to help keep you safe online as you’re shopping, checking emails, booking travel and otherwise looking to make the most of the holiday season.
Tips to Safeguard & Manage Your Passwords
According to StaySafeOnline.org, below are a few ways you can protect your passwords/passphrases for online accounts.
Use Sentences
A strong passphrase is a sentence that is at least 12 characters long. Focus on positive sentences or phrases that you like to think about and are easy to remember (for example, “I love country music.”). Many sites also allow you to use spaces.
Make Passphrases Unique
Having separate passphrases for each of your accounts can help you to keep your personal and sensitive information secure. At a minimum, separate your work and personal accounts and make sure that your critical accounts have the strongest passphrases.
Use a Password Manager
Everyone can forget a password. A password manager like LastPass, which is offered at Elon, can help you keep your login credentials secure. Not only can password managers securely store and share your account passwords between computers and mobile devices, but these tools also allow you to choose very long, random passwords that you don’t have to remember.
Lock Down Your Login
Fortify your online accounts by enabling the strongest authentication tools available, such as biometrics, security keys, multi-factor authentication or a unique one-time code through an app on your mobile device. Your usernames and passwords are not enough to protect key accounts like email, banking and social media.
Visit StaySafeOnline.org to learn more.
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