World Password Day is celebrated on May 5 of each year with the fundamental purpose of raising awareness among citizens about the importance of creating secure passwords to prevent the theft of private and relevant information by cybercriminals.

Cyberattacks or computer crimes are becoming more frequent every day in a digitalized world like the current one. Being a victim of hacking can not only lead to the loss of personal or legal accounts on social networks, but also the theft of private and relevant user information or finances deposited in bank accounts or virtual wallets.

The origin of this commemoration dates back to 2005 when the researcher and author of the text Perfect Passwords Mark Burnett explained the strategies for creating a more secure password and “proposed establishing a day that would serve as a reminder to users and companies around the world. world”.

In 2013, the software company Intel Security, recognized for having created the McAfee antivirus, took up Burnett’s idea of ​​declaring World Password Day and began its celebration on the first Thursday of May, which this year is May 5.

Strategies for creating strong passwords

Most people know the importance of having strong passwords on their devices, accounts, and apps to help protect their information. However, few take the appropriate measures, either for convenience or fear of forgetting the password.

They generally use words or phrases such as birthdate, wedding anniversary, graduation. As well as ascending or descending numbers, family names, pets or common places that are not recommended by security experts in order to create a secure password that is difficult to break.

One of the safest recommendations to prevent cybercriminals from breaking passwords is to combine uppercase and lowercase characters with numerical data, add one or two special characters and make them as long as possible.

Another recommendation of experts is the use of the second authentication factor, which is a temporary access code sent by text message. In addition, it is recommended not to use the same password for all accounts, since the cyberattacker would have unlimited access to all social networks, banks and emails.

M. Rodríguez

Source: tn.com.ar

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