Keeping Your Online Accounts Safe and Secure
These tips can help keep your online accounts safe, make it easier to recover your information if it is compromised, and prevent against attacks.
Create strong passwords for your accounts
It's important to have strong passwords, particularly your email password since many services now use your email address to check your identity. If someone gets access to your login credentials, they may be able to use your email to reset the passwords for your other accounts, like banking and online shopping.
Do
- Make the new password is significantly different from previous passwords.
- Use a sentence or phrase converted into a string of initials, numbers, and symbols.
- Make your password difficult to guess, even if someone is familiar with you. Avoid names, birthdays, or your pet's name.
Don't
- Use the same passwords for multiple accounts.
- Use a single word for your password like "password" or "sunshine".
- Use common passwords like "password", "iloveyou", or "12345678".
Make sure your operating system has the latest updates
Most operating systems have free software updates to enhance security and performance. Because updates help keep your mobile and computer safer, it is strongly recommended that you set up your device to get these updates automatically.
Never reply to email asking for your password
Never reply to any email asking for any personal information, even if it claims to be coming from a legitimate source. Instead, contact the company directly to confirm your account status.
Keep your devices safe
If you lose a device that you use to sign into your account, or if you know that someone else has access to your devices for whatever reason, be proactive and remove the trusted status from those devices.
