- World Password Day is here
- Most TechRadar Readers don’t change their passwords until prompted
- Changing passwords often is a great protection against stolen credentials
World Password Day is here, and in the age of technology, passwords are at the forefront of personal protection and privacy. That being said, most of us neglect our password hygiene in a major way, and we polled our TechRadar Pro readers through our WhatsApp channel (which can be found here for anyone interested!), and it confirmed our suspicions in a big way….
We like to think that TechRadar Pro readers are pretty savvy and tech-forward, but out of the over 1,200 respondents to our survey, a staggering 84% (over 1,000) said that they only change their passwords when they’re forced to because they’ve forgotten it.
Data breaches are all too common these days, and with the number of accounts you need just to complete basic tasks (emails, shopping, watching tv, and pretty much everything else) – it’s almost impossible to keep up with breaches on every site you’ve ever signed up for, so check out our picks for best password managers if you want to stay on top of them.
Serious risks
This means passwords need to be changed much more regularly, or ideally, everyone should use a unique password for each site that would also be changed regularly. We realise this is a big ask, so at the very least we recommend changing your password every three months, which only 89 TechRadar Pro readers (just 7%) said they did.
This leaves the middle ground, which is our 35 readers who change their password every 6 months, and the 63 of you that change them once a year. Its crucial to change your password if you’re exposed in a data breach (and as often as you can remember to!).
To make sure you’re as safe as possible, check out our biggest tips for creating a secure password, so you can make sure each new password offers the best protection.
“Passwords are one of the first critical barriers between a person, a threat actor and a successful cyberattack but many people make the mistake of reusing the same login credentials across multiple sites and devices,” says Matt Cooke, EMEA Cybersecurity strategist at Proofpoint.
“A password manager creates randomised passwords that are safely stored, encrypted, and accessible across all personal devices and reduces the burden of trying to remember complicated login credentials across multiple websites. It’s also best to change all passwords twice a year and change business passwords every three months.”
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