Big question for everyone today is, should you regularly change your passwords. According to me if everything’s going all right don’t change your passwords. The problem is, some companies and some people think otherwise. Maybe they say every 30 days or every 60 days, you should change your passwords. I have got a bit of an issue with that. I think if you tell people to regularly change their passwords, what they do is they begin to choose really weak passwords. They begin to fall into the mistake of choosing passwords, which are easy to guess. So, passwords which they can remember and that means they become predictable. It makes passwords easier to hack as well. The very real risk is that your users will fall into the trap of choosing predictable passwords. Because you’re making them regularly change them. Indeed because people haven’t so often changed their passwords. What they do is they fall into the trap again of reusing passwords on multiple websites. That’s a real big no-no.
Under what conditions password needs change
So under what conditions should you change your passwords? Well I would say there are probably two or three reasons. One is if you believe your password has been compromised. So, if you’ve had for instance some malicious code on your computer. Or if you were fished, or if there’s been a database hack. And your password may have fallen into the hands of hackers. Then clearly change your password and change your password as soon as possible. And if you can enable something like two-factor authentication or 2-step verification for greater security on that account. So that one reason if there’s been a hack effectively then you should change your password. Another reason is if you decide that it wasn’t as sensible as I imagined it was. So if you chose a password which was easy to guess.
Should you regularly change your passwords
For instance name of your favourite football team or the name of your partner or the name of your cat, then clearly change your password. Or if you’ve chosen a password which is just incredibly easy to guess. For instance a password which is a dictionary word or a password which everybody is using. That one two three four five six or password1 or let me in passwords like that are really simple for the hackers to crack. So, that’s another reason why you should change your passwords. The third and final reason why you should change your password is if you are reusing your password on multiple websites. That’s a huge no-no, you should never be using the same password on multiple sites. Because if a hacker hacks into one website and steals your password first thing they do is try and use that password against your other online accounts. If you are using that same password on Amazon, eBay, PayPal etc. Then before you know it those accounts might be compromised.
So changing your password every 30-60 days to something brand new just for the sake of it, I don’t think it’s a good idea.
Hope this article helps you in managing your passwords.
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