Web Tips #1: Protect Your Brand!

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I’ll be publishing all sorts of web tips on this site, but as I do, remember this: If you’re not adequately protecting your property online, all of the other tips could quickly become moot.

Can you imagine how awful it would be if your website or social media accounts were hacked?!

It happens all the time. People tend to have some awful habits when it comes to online security.

Are you making any of these dangerous mistakes with your passwords?

Do you use the same password on multiple sites?

Are you using a password that just includes maybe a single word and a number (such as a year or date)?

Do you think that using special characters in place of letters (such as @ for a or 3 for E) is clever and means you have a safe password?

And let’s not even talk about just using your child’s name or your dog’s name!

Here’s what you need to be doing instead:

Use two-factor authentication if it’s available. This uses a secondary method to validate your sign-in on devices that you may not always use, or when you have recently cleared your cache. This helps ensure that someone who does somehow obtain your password can’t log in easily. One form of two-factor authentication will text you with a code to enter in before it lets you complete the login process.

Use STRONG passwords. What is a STRONG password? Pay attention to the guidelines for whatever site you’re using. At a minimum, it should be 16 characters (though some sites will only allow 12) and you need to use a combination of upper and lowercase letters and numbers. If a site will permit it, make sure you also include some special characters (such as ! & * @ etc) and even spaces if it’s allowed. WordPress sites will allow you to use a space in your password so even something like this could be a password:

This could be a password.

Do NOT re-use passwords. Seriously. Don’t do it. I’m speaking from experience. There was a password I used to use all over the place many, many years ago, and one time one of the sites that I used was breached. My username and password was in a list of countless other users whose information was compromised. There were so many sites where I then had to go in and change my password. It was such a hassle! Now I use different passwords everywhere, even if they’re just different by one or two different characters at the beginning or end. I also love that my browsers will save my passwords since I know no one else uses my computer or my phone, but if for some reason I need to look up a password, I can easily go into my browser preferences or the Passwords list on my iPhone.

If you struggle to think of good passwords, you can use an online password generator, like this one.

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