The account of a hacked social network or mailbox, and it's drama. But another scenario causes anxiety: regular use of the "Forgot your password?" ". If your passwords are a problem for you on a daily basis, there is still time to change some habits. Here are suggestions from experts to erect an insurmountable wall around your personal data.
Respect the basics of a good password
A simple rule to start with: a good account access key must be more than eight characters long and include letters, numbers and random symbols.
Do not hesitate to change it at least every six months.
Even if it is complicated to juggle several passwords, it is strongly advised not to reuse the same password or one of its variants on its different accounts. It's a bit… like having your whole bunch of keys stolen.
“The problem is never the strength of a password. It is a question of not giving the same to the 200 accounts that we will create in our life in order to limit the risks ”, underlines Cyril Leclerc, head of security for Dashlane, a password management tool.
Because if the password is found in nature after a major data leak, cybercriminals will only have to try it on the different platforms or easily deduce the other versions.
Anonymize sesame
With the help of social networks and a minimum of deduction, an ill-intentioned person can determine a bundle of clues and cross-check the potential sources of inspiration for your passwords: family, friends, passions or nicknames.
So never use names, proper names, or anything that hackers can easily infer about you. Same principle for phone numbers or addresses that are easy to find.
Complicating the life of pirates
“Criminals test the most popular passwords first. For example, last names followed by the name of a site before using the brute force method, that is to say by testing with a software all the possible combinations to discover the key ", recalls Ivan Kwiatkowski, researcher at the GReAT laboratory of cybersecurity specialist Kaspersky.
"The only way to find shelter for good is a complete sentence that you are the only person to know by heart," says the expert.
Update your knowledge
Never underestimate the capabilities of a machine should be a cardinal rule of computer hygiene. An attacker and his password cracking software know all the tricks used by humans.
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"Above all, do not put your child's first name followed by the year of birth or replace the letters of a name with a number, this is now too well known," insists Cyril Leclerc of Dashlane. And also to warn: "Be careful not to think you are smarter by typing all the letters diagonally on the keyboard".
Instead, think of a strong password made up of four words that have nothing to do with each other in order to reach at least 12 characters. Even better: use a password generator to create them for you!
Think of the manager or the safe
One to rule them all. There have been several years of reliable software or applications that make life easier by protecting different passwords in a sort of waterproof box thanks to a "Master Password", the only one to remember.
This manager will also generate almost unbreakable and sometimes single-use random passwords.
As password theft is exploding due to increasingly sophisticated malware, it's time to consider this option mostly free.
Recognized market players are LastPass, 1Password and the French specialist Dashlane.