Cybersecurity tips for a happy new year

Blue Monday is considered the most depressing day of the year. It falls on the third Monday in January and is the result of a combination of factors including weather, financial problems and low motivation to work.

Some people may feel bad when the long-awaited New Year doesn't really bring anything new and fulfilling their goals remains difficult after the holidays. When it still seems impossible to dramatically change your lifestyle, it may be best to focus on something simple and realistic, such as adopting a good habit and secure passwords. This small positive change will ensure that the new year doesn't bring any more heartaches like losing money or personal data.

Kaspersky experts have compiled several simple tips to encourage users to manage passwords properly.

1. Eliminate combinations such as "1234" and "admin" in the password

Such passwords are convenient and simple for users, but unfortunately also for attackers, as they are easily cracked by algorithms that sort through possible character combinations. To protect your personal data, it is safer to use more complex and unique passwords, consisting of various symbols, numbers and letters (both upper and lower case).

2. It is preferable not to include personal information in passwords

Using a birth date or wedding anniversary, street name of the house or city of residence makes a password more obvious to an attacker. The password should not contain personal information about the account owner, especially that which is already available. Instead, it is better to use random combinations of words and letters that don't make sense as words and phrases. There are several methods on how to create strong passwords. For example, you can choose an associative method or an emoji approach, etc.

3. A secure method is to use unique passwords for each account

Even if adopting the previous tips didn't help protect an account from being hacked, then this rule can help avoid further misfortune. The sequence of letters, numbers and symbols should be unique for each account, so even if fate should strike, not all of your information will end up in the hands of hackers.

4. The association method for passwords could be a useful and secure practice

This method involves selecting a few words or phrases associated with events, places or people that are important to someone. Then, by combining these words or phrases, a unique password is created that is easy to remember but difficult to formulate. It is important that the phrase is meaningful only to you and does not include common expressions like "Iloveyou".

5. Do not hesitate to install a password management application

Using only "password123" for all your accounts and when it is not renewed after a long period of time can be a very attractive option for an attack. Indeed, devising a unique and complex password for dozens of accounts can be a difficult task, which can be entrusted to reliable password management applications. Such apps can not only create strong passwords, but also store them - for sensitive personal data such as medical information, financial data - securely on each of your devices.