Reusing the same password across accounts means that if it’s stolen even once, everything from your personal email to your Facebook could be hijacked. Also, the most frequently reused passwords are easily guessed, such as “password” and “123456.” Use a password manager to produce and securely store strong, unique passwords for every login.

An account should not be able to recover your password for you. Your password is encrypted and known only to you. If you lose the password, the service associated with the account should reset it and send you a new password that you can then change. If the service says it can recover your password […]

The longer the password, the better. That’s why using an entire phrase instead of just a word is ideal. Instead of coming up with a nonsensical series of numbers, letters and characters, you could come up with a phrase that’s equally strong and much easier to remember. Like, Tacos Are The Best! or, everyone-loves-a-good-rainbow.

Scammers may invent fake password managers to trick people into giving them their passwords to sensitive accounts. To avoid this, only use password managers that have an established reputation and have numerous customer reviews, like Dashlane, Keeper or LastPass.

Complicated passwords provide exceptional protection against hacking – but what if somebody intercepted them? Reduce the risk of password theft, set up two-factor authentication on sensitive accounts. This requires anyone requesting access to supply an extra credential, such as a code sent to a separate device, in order to log in.

If a password manager claims it can recover your master password if you lose it, that means the service will receive access to that information when you create the account. This approach puts your sensitive information at risk. Normally, your passwords are all encrypted, and even the password manager does not have access to your […]