Password is a trendy word in today’s world. Password is what protects us from losing our personal data. Starting from smartphones to almost everything around us is password protected. As such, it becomes an integral part of our lives to maintain a strong password for every account or ID we have, to safeguard our personal data.
So, how many passwords do you own? And how do you manage it? An average person normally has around 5 to 10 passwords and it is pretty difficult to remember all of them. Sometimes I use a random alphanumeric and sometimes I made it very difficult to guess.
Let’s discuss how to manage your account password specially for banking purposes.
One can use a password manager to keep my all password secured. That way you can keep track of your password.
In my personal experience, I normally create my password depending on the type of account I have. Say for example, for office work, a password that is linked to my employee ID, I make it damn difficult to guess. No one could guess it. Even I forget sometimes, but that’s a good sign, right?
In addition to the above, I keep changing my password every now and then. The best way to confuse hackers.
Also, read the 10 best ways to avoid fraudsters.
For all office-related IDs, one should always make a very strong password that would never crack.
The other IDs are financial-related matters such as internet banking, credit card, ATM card and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Your password needs to be a very good one.
You might agree after all it is your hard-earned money which you do not want to be compromised. So, keeping all of your passwords strong is a good thing and it secures your money as well as your personal data.
How many passwords for banking transactions?
Yes, since your hard-earned money needs to be protected 24/7, you must create a very strong password for your accounts. So, what kinds of these passwords are actually for? To find out, let’s just put it this way
- Passwords for your internet banking account, one is a log-in password and the other is a profile password. Transaction password is an OTP ( One time password) that you received through your phone number).
- ATM (Automated teller machine) Card password, which is normally a four-digit PIN number.
- The credit card has two passwords, one for the management of your accounts and the other is the card PIN number.
- Every application-based product of banks has a password to be created.
Thus, a person may have more than 20 passwords if he maintained accounts in at least 4 different banks. As such management of those passwords must be damn hard.
Here are some tips on how you make a strong password
- The required length of a strong password must be at least 8 characters. If you can make it 16 characters that are great.
- Include alphabetical, numerical, special characters, and case-sensitive letters. For example Fghtsujo_@725390, it is completely random alphabets and numbers where guessing would be very hard.
- Do not put anything related to you. Do not keep your name, date of birth, nickname etc as your password.
- The longer your password the better it is.
- 4 digits passwords such as ATM card PIN must be made easy but not guessable.
5 things you need to follow
- Use good antivirus for your PC mac or laptop or desktop.
- Purchase goods from trusted sites only where you normally submit your card or internet banking details.
- Change the password at regular intervals of time.
- Don’t make all your passwords the same. Make different passwords for different IDs or accounts.
- You can use the password manager available in the market, but you will have to spend some amount on it. Here are the password manager sites such as LastPass, keeper security, and dashlane. If you feel uncomfortable keeping your password in the cloud, you can save it locally on your desktop or laptop by using Roboform or passwordsafe.
5 things you need to stop doing!
- Never write down your password anywhere.
- Don’t purchase stuff from unreliable sites as it may end up compromising your credentials.
- Never install third-party unknown applications to your smartphone, tablet or laptop/desktop.
- Never share your password with your friends and family, it may be compromised by other third parties.
- Never believe in getting quick rich schemes, normally they are the mother of all scams.
I guess maintenance of passwords is easy but how to avoid those risk inherent is up to you!
Yes, by going through everything at my disposal I would say that maintenance of your account’s passwords is easy but the risk is there. All you need to do is precautions and be aware of online and offline frauds and how it is happening around us.
A simple follow-up by knowing some basics is sufficient to secure yourself.