What Is a Password Breach and How To Prevent Data Losses
Passwords are what give you personal access to your own accounts and data online, from banking applications to social media accounts. Unfortunately, it is very common for data breaches to occur. As our internet activity increases, so do cyber-crimes. They make anyone using the internet at risk of being hacked. But what is a password breach and is it possible to protect yourselves from such data breaches?
Even large companies such as LinkedIn and Facebook have experienced their user data being breached. It is important to distinguish that having your data breached does not mean your account has been hacked yet. It means that you are at high risk of this happening. In this article, we will explore what a password data breach is and how to check for it.
What is a password data breach? It is when some third party gains access to your accounts and personal information. Passwords can be breached in several ways. They include exploits of outdated software, attacks by malware, viruses, and weak passwords.
If your data has been breached, there are some things you are at risk of:
- having your account hacked
- having your finances being compromised
- having your identity stolen, etc.
Therefore, it is best to ensure that this does not happen and to know how to check for it.
How to prevent password breaches? There are two main things you can do to prevent breaches: choosing strong passwords and storing them securely.
Weak passwords are common. Hence why it is important to ensure yours are strong as well as unique. Online security is of utmost importance, it is one of the best ways to protect your data, accounts, and personal information online.
How to Create a Strong Password
- Not using real words.
- Not using personal information, such as your name or a pet’s name.
- Using at least 8 characters.
- Using a unique password for each account and website.
- Using a variety of lower- and upper-case letters, symbols, and numerical characters.
- Updating it regularly.
Now that you know what a password data breach is and how to prevent it, you have multiple, strong, and unique passwords. It can be overwhelming to remember or store all of them. If these are not securely stored, they can be easily accessed by hackers, making you vulnerable to a data breach.
The best way to securely store and manage them is to make use of password managers. These are applications that safely store passwords for you. These managers ensure that you do not need to remember every single one and do not have to worry about hackers gaining access to them.
There are two types of managers available: browser-based managers and independently based management applications. Browser managers are built into the most popular internet browsers. They offer the advantage of being free of charge but the information kept in them is not accessible across multiple devices and they are not ideal for business. Manager applications on the other hand, not only help you to store passwords and other data but also help to create strong and reliable ones. Additionally, they are accessible to you on multiple browsers and devices.
How to Check If Your Password Has Been Breached?
- Data breach tracking websites. There are websites that can be used to manually check for a data breach. ‘HaveIBeenPwned’ and ‘BreachAlarm’ are such websites and they keep records of online password data breaches. To use the website to check, you can simply enter your email address and it will notify you if any of your accounts have been breached and on which platform this has occurred.
- Password managers. The best course of action is to make use of such a manager, such as Passwarden. This application has a Security Dashboard tool that will alert you if your data has been breached at any point.
If your password data has been breached, you will need to update it immediately. Firstly, go to the website or application where it has been breached and update it. Be sure that the new password is strong by using the tips mentioned above. Now, you will need to update password data on Passwarden too.
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