73% of users have the same password for everything including Online Banking.
28-Jan-2011 This is a shocking statistic. No wonder people are afraid of getting hacked, they make it so easy.Your online data is only as secure as your password, test yours at http://howsecureismypassword.net/ and find out how quickly it can be hacked.
Tips on password management
Email password different from all others.
When you sign up for a newsletter and give your user-name (usually your email address) and create a password if this password is the same password you use to access your email then there is a chance that any of those companies staff that have access to that data can access your email.
If they can do that, then they can get to a lot of personal information, they can change your password so you can't get access, they can find out where you shop, where you bank etc and reset those password on those sites or get password reminders for any website that you are registered with including any social media and possibly Internet Banking.
At the very least have 4 levels of password security
Email Only
This should be unique for your email and not use it for anything else.
Low level security
Things newsletters you sign up for, competitions you enter, surveys you take low security websites.
Medium level security
Use this for e-commerce websites, your domain name, website hosting, your computer, your website CMS if you have one, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In or sites that need security but not banking or email.
High level
Online Banking and other financial data eg share trading
So there you have it, by breaking your passwords down into security levels you are increasing your protection from being hacked and you are making it a bit easier for you to remember your passwords.
Alternatively you can keep an asset register of all your important websites and what those passwords are. I suggest you use http://lastpass.com/, but there are plenty out there, and make sure your password to it is very difficult to crack eg “7jUeO59Rf856” not something like “bubblegum”
Good luck and the next time you enter your password into internet banking just think how easy it would be to crack.
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03-Feb-2011 I have been battling with this for a while now, and I just could not figure it out. I changed my ema..73% of users have the same password for everything including Online Banking.
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Trish Sait is the founder of Ingress Online. She has been building websites for more than 11 years' both here in Australia and the UK.
During that time she has developed a wealth of knowledge about all things internet especially web standards, marketing, SEO and strategy. You can connect with her on Twitter @Ingressonline.