Why account safety is more important than ever before.

Creating a strong password is more important than ever before.

The need for a strong password is at an all-time high. With online scammers continually finding new and creative ways to hack into accounts, your password can’t be the typical pet’s name or year you were born. It is time to transition to something a little more complex in order to protect yourself online.

Here are some of our best tips to construct the most secure password possible:

  1. Create a combination of at least 8 letters, numbers and symbols

Creating a password with a combination of letters, numbers and symbols significantly increases the number of combinations, therefore decreasing a hacker’s chance of guessing your password correctly. This combination of characters is most effective when all three are scattered randomly throughout the password with no particular thought or order.
 

  1. Do not use sequential letters or numbers

As briefly mentioned above, the characters of your password need to be random—meaning randomly placed and not sequential. According to this list, the most common password is 123456, followed closely by “password” and 1q2w3e. Every password mentioned on this list is either a common word or phrase, a number sequence or it follows a pattern on the keyboard. Creating a password with a unique character pattern significantly reduces your chance of being hacked.
 

  1. Do not use personal, easily accessible information

People’s idea of a “unique” password often includes things like pets’ names, street names and children’s names. However, what most people do not realize is that all of that common information is usually available on their social media page. While it’s best to not include any personal information in your password, if you do, make sure that information is truly a secret—not something that is easily accessible.
 

  1. Use a unique password for all your accounts

Another common error people make when creating a password is using the same password for all accounts. While this is usually done in order to remember all of them that means if a hacker gets into one account they have access to all of them. It is best to use a completely unique password for each account you have, each one with all of the specificities listed here, in order to keep you and your accounts protected.
 

  1. Avoid common substitutions

Creating a substitution within a common or personal word/phrase may seem like a good way to both remember your password and fool account hackers, but oftentimes these substitutions are pretty common and easy to crack. Replacing Os with zeros and “spelling out” a word with numbers doesn’t really do much to improve your password security, it is actually just as easy for a hacker to guess.

Creating a strong password for all of your accounts is crucial, but it does not have to be hard. Following these steps can help ensure you and your information are protected from the increasing number of hackers and scams our world is currently facing. For more information and any help with your SkyLine/SkyBest account, visit us online at skybest.com or call us 1-800-759-2226.

 

SkyBest Premium WI-Fi customer? Check out this video on how to update your network password: