Strengthen your passwords and keep the cybercriminals at bay with these dos and don’ts!
With cyber-attacks happening more and more often, it’s more important than ever to have strong passwords protecting your online accounts. Cybercriminals can try to steal your personal information, your money or your very identity itself!
Follow these tips to develop good password habits you can carry through your online life.
- Do use a password that is longer than 15 character and is complicated. The longer a password is—and the more combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and symbols you include—the more difficult it will be for someone to guess your password and the longer it will take for software to crack it.
- Don’t base your password on personal information. It can be tempting to incorporate details from your life into your password to help you remember it, such as your date of birth, your address or your pet’s name. However, these are details that may be publicly available or a cybercriminal might be able to find, such as through your social media, and use to uncover your password.
- Do use multi-factor authentication (MFA) where it is available. Adding MFA to your accounts adds an extra layer of security such as needing to confirm or enter a code from another source like your phone. Deakin uses the Duo Mobile App to help protect your Deakin account.
- Don’t reuse the same password. You’re especially vulnerable if you reuse the same password for many—or all!—of your accounts. For example, if a hacker uncovers your TikTok password, they may also have access to your bank accounts, email and other sensitive information. Using a different password for each account will help slow or limit the damage if one does get stolen.
- Do meet Deakin’s password requirements for your University account. To ensure that your University account remains secure, your password must meet university requirements.
Where to get help and more information
- Our Cyber Security blog will keep you up to date with the latest known online scams and show you how to stay safe online.
- The Australian Cyber Security Centre has lots of helpful information about how to protect yourself online and what to do if you’re hacked.
- Got a question or IT issue? Contact IT Help.
- You may wish to use a password manager, such as LastPass.
Unfortunately, no password is ever going to be completely secure, but following the above tips, and remaining cautious, can help minimise your risk and make it more inconvenient for someone to target you.