How to stop worrying about your password being stolen

1. Turn on two-factor authentication

It's a simple yet effective way to protect your data. Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds another condition for logging into accounts - entering a code from an SMS or mobile application. Even if attackers find out the username and password, they will not be able to log into your account without gaining access to your smartphone.

Check out Lifehacker's guide to enable 2FA wherever you can. Or just the most important and valuable accounts.

One little thing: when you set up two-factor authentication, give preference to specialized mobile applications over SMS. This is a less reliable 2FA method.

2. Create strong passwords

Try to come up with a long password. Very long. No, really, the longer the better. Hacking is also made more difficult by various additional symbols, numbers and letters in different registers.

Do not use words and phrases that can be found in a dictionary in the password. In general, the best passwords are those that are randomly generated.

Check out one of your favorite passwords on How Secure Is My Password, which shows how secure it is and how long it will take to brute force it. If the search takes less than a million years, then you don't have a very good password.

3. Use unique passwords

Many of us sin by using the same password in several of our accounts. In especially difficult cases, one set of symbols is installed in general for all accounts that the user has. This means that if at least one of the services is hacked, the rest of the data will also be at risk.

Therefore, always come up with a separate password for each account you create. Of course, remembering all these passwords will be difficult, but there is a way out - password managers.

4. Install a password manager

Password managers are great programs for several reasons. First, they can store as many passwords of any complexity as they want in a securely encrypted form. Secondly, they know how to generate hack-resistant combinations in one click. Finally, they enter passwords for you, which saves a lot of time.

To choose which password manager to use, check out our selection. If you take your security downright paranoid, first of all, pay attention to those applications that store their database offline - the same KeePass, for example.

The password database stored on your disk or external media is much less likely to leak to the network. And online LastPass, despite all its reliability and popularity, was still hacked.

5. Change passwords periodically

Constantly going to all your accounts on the Internet and changing passwords there is, of course, already some form of madness. But in the most important accounts, it is worth doing it from time to time (say, once every six months). Here's a rough list.

Email. Your correspondence is stored there, and, as a rule, accounts of other Internet services are linked to the e-mail address.
Cloud storage. It contains your personal and business data.
Banking applications and other financial services. Here, perhaps, there is no need to explain.
Steam account. This is especially necessary if you are the owner of a rich collection of games.
Password manager. The security of the remaining records depends on the master password.

Many password managers allow you to assign an expiration date to your entries. When the time comes, the application will remind you that it is time to change the password in the specified service.

6. Use unusual answers to security questions

The service where you register asks you to come up with a secret answer to the question used to reset your password? You don't have to answer honestly. Otherwise, a cracker will be able to choose the correct answer if he knows you well or collects information about you on social networks.

Get creative. For example, to the question "What city was my first job in?" answer purple. Or generate a random set of characters altogether and save it in the password manager. For greater reliability, you can store the answers to security questions in a separate database.

7. Refuse to save passwords in the browser and on paper

Avoid saving passwords in the browser and on paper

The fact that it is not necessary to write down logins with passwords in a notebook or on stickers stuck to the monitor is simply obvious. This way, not abstract evil hackers, but simply curious household ones will gain access to your data.

The browser is also not the best place to store sensitive information. Of course, this is convenient when all passwords are synchronized between devices via Chrome or Firefox and you do not have to enter anything manually.

However, if a cracker has access to the device, he can spy on the password. You don't need to have any advanced skills to do this.

Therefore, for security, export the credentials to a password manager. Or at least enable a master password in your browser.

And never store passwords in text files: in this form anyone can open and read them. Here is a guy from the movie "Lair of the Monster" did this, and as a result, he was figured out and began to pursue a maniac.