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How to Build and Maintain Strong Passwords

Keep your accounts secure by following the latest advice for password security

As most of us conduct more and more personal and financial business online, high-quality, secure passwords are crucial for protecting our information, identities, and finances. Security is a priority at Forbright Bank, and we follow rigorous security practices to keep customer accounts safe. To further ensure that your finances and other online accounts are protected, it’s important to develop safe, effective passwords and guard them appropriately.

What’s an Effective Password?

Research has shown that there are several best practices for effective password management. For instance, passwords should always be long, unique, and random, and passwords should be difficult for strangers and even family members to guess.

Here are some tips for creating strong passwords:

  • Make it long and complex: A password’s length indicates its strength. Each password you use should be at least 12 characters long. It helps to have complex letter arrangements, numbers, special characters, and a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, but a hacker’s ability to crack a password is really based on its length.
  • Use phrases instead of words: Try to think in terms of “passphrases” rather than passwords when developing secure login credentials. So, instead of using dictionary words, combine words, numbers, and symbols to make unique, lengthy password phrases. For example, you might start with a phrase like “CarbonNeutralSince2021” and add numbers and symbols to make it “Carbon1Neutral2Since*2021!” for even greater security.
  • Incorporate symbols: Consider memorizing a group of symbols, such as @#&%?, and incorporate the group into longer, phrase-based passwords, sometimes at the beginning, sometimes at the end.
  • Don’t reuse passwords: Use a different password for every account you have online, rather than reusing the same one over and over, even if it’s strong and difficult to guess. When a password has been compromised on one site, it’s open to attack on any other site where you use it, so having different passwords across accounts helps minimize any damage.

How to Keep Your Information Protected

One of the best ways to practice password protection is simply to avoid commonly used passwords. These can include family names, personal hobbies, and simple patterns, like your birthday or home address. Protection also requires you to maintain and securely record your passwords.

  • Update passwords when appropriate: When you update all your passwords on a frequent basis, such as every 60 to 90 days, “there’s a tendency to use the same word and append with a different number or character, which can be easily breached in the future,” says Forbright Bank Chief Information Security Officer Julia Wu. Instead, she recommends updating your passwords based on triggering events, such as when a data breach is confirmed, if you entered your credentials into a harvesting site, or every 365 days.
  • Use a password manager: With a unique password for every account, it can be difficult to remember all of them. But you don’t want to keep password information stored where it’s easily accessible, like written on your phone’s Notes app or on a piece of paper. Consider using a secure password manager like LastPass or 1Password, which keeps your data encrypted and charges minimal fees to help you develop simple and secure passwords and remember them all for you so that you don’t have to keep up with them. Free password managers like those offered by Google and Chrome are convenient and secure enough for basic use, but they don’t offer the advanced security, privacy, and flexibility provided by paid versions.
  • Check before entering passwords: This may seem obvious, but it’s important to ensure that any site where you are entering your password is legitimate. Scammers often go after passwords through email “phishing” schemes that ask you to log in and deal with some issue, like updating your billing information or a missed payment. They then connect you to a fake site to capture the password you enter. If you receive any message requesting personal or financial information, avoid clicking the link in the email and instead navigate to the website on your own, or call the sender directly to verify whether the message is legitimate before providing any information.
  • Take advantage of additional security features: Passwords are just the first line of defense. If a site offers security features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), which requires an additional verification step, or biometric logins (such as your face or fingerprint), be sure to use them.

There are many benefits to having access to all your services with a click of a button, but it’s important to continue to practice safe online measures, including password protection, to help keep your and other accounts safe.

If you’d like to learn more about how Forbright Bank is working to ensure your accounts are kept safe and secure, visit here for more information.

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