Keeping accounts protected is essential when browsing the Internet. However, this does not always happen and users make mistakes that can expose them. Having a good password is really important, since as we are going to see, unwanted access attempts are very present. We will also give some tips so that this does not become a problem.
Many attempts to steal online accounts
A report by Beyond Identity has shown the real risk of someone trying to access our accounts on the Internet. They have conducted a study on 1015 people to see what strategies they follow to prevent password theft and how they maintain online security.
The first thing this report alerts you to is the large number of unwanted access attempts on the Internet. In fact, in this study they show that one in three users has tried at some point to guess the password and enter someone else’s account.
Specifically, 51.6% try to guess their partner’s password, 24.6% that of their children, 22% that of their co-workers and 19.9% that of their boss. They usually use data they know, personal information they have, such as dates of birth, names, phone numbers …
But the biggest problem is that of that figure, 73% were successful and managed to find out the access key in one way or another. Without a doubt, it is something to take into account and that shows us the importance of creating passwords that are secure.
This same report shows that a large number of users share their passwords with third parties. In fact, 50.1% share accounts to watch streaming video and 44.9% to stream music. This can expose those keys, as the fact that someone else knows that password can increase the risk.
What to do to prevent access to accounts
So what can we do to prevent someone who tries to enter our account from succeeding? Without a doubt, the main thing is to have a good password, since it is the first security barrier that will prevent a third party from entering without our permission.
That key must be unique, totally random, and contain everything necessary to be considered strong and complex . It must have letters (both uppercase and lowercase), numbers, and other special symbols. We should never use things like our name, date of birth or any other information that relates to us.
A good idea is to use password managers . They help us to generate totally random keys that meet the requirements to be strong. In addition, they allow us to store them and not forget them. This can prevent passwords from Chrome and other browsers from being stolen as well.
But certainly an additional measure that we can take is to enable two-step authentication whenever possible. This security barrier will request a second step to access an account. If someone for whatever reason finds out the password, they would need a code by SMS, e-mail or application to be able to authenticate.