Manage Password Security
Protect yourself online
In this day and age, where hacking and cyber-theft are becoming increasingly commonplace, security is evermore an issue, and although a fair amount of responsibility lies with websites’ servers and hosts, an equal amount lies with users.
John Andersen, Klik Chief Technical Officer, said of the issue of security, ‘We [at Klik.villas] continuously work to improve our security, to ensure clients’ data is kept out of hands of any third parties. Our login is done in 2 levels, and the final login done using 3 variables; helping to strongly protect Klik.villas from outsiders. However, whilst our walls are secure there is nothing we can do if a client decides to use an insecure password, and we therefore insist that client’s keep passwords as strong and secure as possible.
All passwords in Klik.villas are stored using SHA 512; currently the strongest hash encryption available, where each password is additionally hashed with unique ‘salt’, ensuring tighter security. It also means that it is not possible to read passwords directly from the database even when you have all the details used to store it. Passwords will always have to be reset by users, they cannot be accessed from within.
So what is a secure password?
For a password to be secure you need to avoid obvious and generic passwords, such as ‘123456’ and ‘password’, these are the most commonly used password and are therefore the easiest to guess. You also need to avoid use any personal information, such as your name, e.g. ‘John’, even if you add numbers to it, e.g. ‘John68’, it is still easy to break.
It is, in fact, recommended to steer clear of all personal information (hackers can access social media platforms so do not use a pet’s name, nickname, or anything of the sort), and all dictionary words, and any keyboard combinations (such as qwerty).
The best passwords will be long (different people will advise different lengths, but the general consensus is the longer the better, and minimum 14 characters), and contain a range of symbols, upper and lowercase letters, and numbers, that appear to be entirely random.
How you can create a secure password
Not sure where to begin in creating your new password? There is a formulaic system that you can follow. Choose a statement, anything from ‘I hope that manchester united win the 2016 champions league!’ to a series of random words chosen out of the dictionary ‘volcano dolphin voicebox poncho’ (make sure it is random and you are not using personal information in this sentence).
Once you have this phrase, rewrite it using initials, symbols and numbers. For example: ‘I hope manchester united win the 2016 champions league!’ becomes IhtMUwt2016cl!
If you don’t fancy doing this yourself there are a range of password generators that can do this for you, some of the most notable are; http ://passwordsgenerator.net/ , LastPass, KeePass and 1Password.
Even with a secure password there are further steps you can take to ensure your online safety. Firstly you ought to have a different password for every single online account you have, do not use the same password for Facebook as well as your online banking. Secondly, these passwords ought to be changed every 5-6 months.
Thirdly, employ two-factor authentication wherever possible; meaning that whenever your account is accessed from a new device a code will be sent to your phone, which is required to log in. This adds a whole layer of security to your accounts. Finally, do not tell anyone your passwords, this negates any good work you do setting them up.
How to remember your passwords?
It can be pretty complicated to remember such lengthy passwords, and so many of them. How are you supposed to keep all of this data in your head? The answer is you’re not.
There are three prime recommended ways to store your passwords securely; you could store them on a USB drive or write them down on paper, but make sure that you then store these away from your laptop (and do not include a descriptive heading, such as ‘password for lastpass’), or you can use a password manager.
Password managers keep all of your passwords in one secure place, and keep track of which password is for which website. This is generally accepted as a safe way of storing your passwords, however there are two drawbacks; there is always a risk of hacking when storing your passwords online and you will need a really good password, stored in a really safe place, for accessing your password manager.