4 ways to keep hackers away from your passwords

In a world where even Mark Zuckerberg, possibly the biggest name in social media, was not able to keep his LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram account intact, paying more attention to securing your account has become essential.    

 

Over the last weekend, the social media accounts of the Facebook supremo were allegedly compromised. The reason for the breach, according to his hackers, was that his password across all platforms was the same.

 

Here are four ways to secure your social media accounts:

 

Choose good passwords

 

We all have heard the arguments in favour of keeping a good password, but nobody seems to have an idea what a good password is.

 

A decade ago, a password like "4k8fg67” would have been considered a good password. But, with the kind of technology we have today, it’s a cake walk for hackers to crack such a pass key.

 

An ideal password has to be at least 12 characters long and should contain a combination of alpha-numeric characters. But, here is a catch! If the password is carved out of your name, birth date, or any such personal details; it makes it very easy to crack.

 

If you have your Facebook and Twitter passwords same, BEWARE!

 

If you have been using the same password across the internet, that is one of the craziest things you have ever done.

 

You might have chosen a complicated password which is very tough to crack, but that's not the only thing you need to take care of.

 

The infamous LinkedIn hack in 2012 was an eye-opener for those who had kept the same password across the internet. Facebook supremo, Mark Zuckerberg was one of those.

 

If a hacker cracks one website you are signed up for, access to the rest of your pass keys gets that much easier for the sneaker.

 

Use 'complex' passwords and a password manager to remember those

 

For ultimate security, there is no alternative to using a complex password. However, it becomes challenging to remember so many passwords. That is when you need a password manager.

 

A password manager is a personal software assistant which stores all your passwords and can be unlocked only by you. However, the major drawback with this aid is that, if your master password is stolen, hackers will get access to all your passwords.

 

Therefore, it becomes a must to have a unique and strong master password and never to forget that one.

 

Two-factor authentication (Old, but effective!)

 

Most of us seem to have forgotten this technique for securing our social media and other accounts. But our service providers have not.

 

Two-factor authentication includes a strong password and a device from which it was set. For example, if your Facebook password was set from your mobile phone, the account gets a double layer of security. If some other device is used to login to your account, the registered mobile phone gets a notification asking for permission to grant access.

 

This feature is already available on all major social media platforms and mailing services and simply needs to be activated.