National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

Week 3 - Securing Key Accounts and Devices

Passphrases

Passphrases are like keys to your personal home online. You should do everything you can prevent people from gaining access to your passphrase. You can further secure your accounts by using additional authentication methods.

Passphrases can be inconvenient, but they’re important if you want to keep your information safe.

Protecting your personal information: take security precautions, think about the consequences of your actions online and enjoy the internet with peace of mind. Here are some simple ways to secure your accounts through better passphrase practices.

• Make your passphrase a sentence: A strong passphrase is a sentence that is at least 12 characters long. Focus on positive sentences or phrases that you like to think about and are easy to remember (for example, “I love country music.”). On many sites, you can even use spaces!
• Unique account, unique passphrase: Having separate passphrases for every account helps to thwart cybercriminals. At a minimum, separate your work and personal accounts and make sure that your critical accounts have the strongest passphrases.
• Write it down and keep it safe: Everyone can forget a passphrase. Keep a list that’s stored in a safe, secure place away from your computer. You can alternatively use a service like a passphrase manager to keep track of your passphrase.