How to Use a Password Manager to Keep Your Passwords Safe

There are a number of recommended best practices for passwords. Make your passwords lengthy. Use complex strings of numbers, symbols, and characters that are not in the dictionary, increasing the effort required to break your passwords. Use a different password for every online account, to prevent a breach at one site from cascading across all your accounts. Everyone needs to practice good password security just like you need to lock your front door when you’re not home. Whether you’re a writer, marketer, accountant, attorney, computer programmer or mortgage broker, you need solid password protection. In general, a strong password contains a mixture of capital and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols. Some accounts have stricter password requirements than others. The longer and more complex your password, the better. For example, Fido77 is a weak password, whereas MM4P.Iwb@! is a strong password. Hackers know that when most people attempt to create strong passwords, they usually start with capital letters, use lowercase letters in the middle, and end with symbols or numbers. Try to mix it up and avoid that formula. If you use the same, weak password for multiple accounts, it won’t take long for a hacker to crack your password and access your personal information. That’s why it’s important to use a different, secure password for each account. Also, avoid dictionary words and words and numbers easily associated with you, such as your pet’s name and your birthday. To handle all of your passwords, you have to rely on memory or a blizzard of Post-It notes. Currently, the recommended approach is to use a password manager. You have a lot of important information that you need to protect, so you owe it to yourself (and your clients) to use a password that will be extremely difficult to break. A password manager is an application that encrypts and securely stores your passwords. You can access it from both your computer and your smartphone. Once you’ve set up your password manager, it will automatically notice when you’re on a website that requires authentication and pre-fill the password field for you on login screens. In fact, most password managers also include password generators that will create long, extremely complex passwords when you need them. So if you think p@ssword1 or Daisy1986 are enough to stop a hacker, think again. Play it smart with your password security, get a password vault, and never use identical or even similar passwords between your different web services or on your computer. The Journey is what everyday entrepreneurs, like you, need to follow in the pursuit of online success. Our experienced GoDaddy Guides are here to take you through all the steps, both big and small, that you encounter every day.