It’s time to introduce the Passphrase
In our previous blog, Passwords You Should Never Use, we discussed the passwords you should NOT use. In this blog, we will discuss the development of the Pass Phrase for password safety.
According to Easy Time Clocks’ interview on the HR Insider, https://youtu.be/ZXVGuzRBIwk, the “passphrase” is the next way to go in cyber security.
What exactly is a passphrase? A passphrase is a sentence that doesn’t make sense, has more characters than a standard password, and is used as a password. By adding more characters and a sentence that doesn’t make sense, it makes the password harder to guess. It is suggested that a passphrase is usually easier to remember than a real intense password, but it is harder to hack.
A passphrase should meet the following criteria:
*At least 19 characters in length
*Include punctuation
*Include spaces
Examples of passphrase are:
I read! 12purplemonkeys
Mary Poppins is my3 favoritecolor?
Space camp MashedPotatoes4!
When it comes to password safety, the biggest thing to remember, is to not have the same password for your personal things, such as your Facebook page, and your business credit card. A different passphrase for each account you have is the safer way to handle passwords. Unfortunately that is a lot to remember and keep up with.
If you really are concerned about passwords, you might also consider getting a password manager.
A password manager is a system that generates your passwords for you and stores those generated passwords so you don’t have to remember all the usernames and passwords for all of your accounts. Google has recently started to offer a similar option. All you do is remember your google password and as long as you are logged in to your Google account, your passwords with be provided for you. If you have limited tech skills and like free, Google is a step in the right direction. If you have more experience and are willing to pay, there are online options that store your passwords on the cloud and there are options where you save your passwords to an external flash drive. Which one would work best really depends on your level of skill, patience and willingness to set up a password manager.
Here are few options to review when looking for a password manager:
Good luck on your adventure into password safety!