Password Protection: The New Scrabble

When I learned that Thurs., May 4, is World Password Day, I couldn’t help but groan.

As a writer, I’m rarely at a loss for words – but I have more than 50 accounts that require passwords, and changing them is a seemingly endless search for new and creative word/number/character combinations in multiple languages.

It just so happens that last month, I decided to corral all my passwords in a single spot and give them some serious thought. Apparently, I’m in the minority.

A May 2016 study about the mental motivations behind password creation by LastPass found 47 percent of respondents use family members’ initials or names; 26 percent choose names of family pets as passwords. And the most common reason a password is changed is because the person simply forgot it.

On the plus side, the people surveyed in six countries said they tend to create stronger passwords for sites they believe should be more secure, such as banks.

But less than one in three uses “stronger” passwords for their social-media accounts, and many use the same few passwords on multiple sites – both increasing their overall vulnerability to hackers. If a con artist can get into your email account, for instance, think of the access they’ll have to your other information – and the passwords they can change.

Further, LastPass concludes that whether a person is “Type A” (believes their attention to detail will keep them safe online) or “Type B” (believes they’re not important enough to be a target), cyber criminals will continue to do what they do.

With that in mind, I’ll be changing my passwords more often. And to make it a little less hassle for me, I’ll sit down a couple times a year and create a list of ironclad new passwords – or the Better Business Bureau recommends pass-phrases – that I can choose from whenever a change is needed. It might be some of the most important writing I do.

(Photo credit: Jakub Rostkowski/StockSnap)