Best practices for creating strong passwords, password managers and multi-factor
authentication
Cyber criminals can use your email to access many of your personal accounts, leaving you vulnerable to
identity theft.
Top Tips To Staying Secure Online
Protect your email by using a strong and separate password:
Cyber criminals can use your email to access many of your personal accounts, leaving
you vulnerable to identity theft.
The latest software and app updates:
Software and app updates contain vital security updates to help protect your devices
from cyber criminals.
Turn on 2-step verification (2SV):
2-step verification is recommended to help protect your online accounts.
Password managers, how they help you secure passwords:
Using a password manager can help you create and remember passwords.
Use a strong and separate password for your email
Why it’s important to take special care of your email password.
We're often told that the passwords to access our online accounts should be really
strong, and not to use them anywhere else. This is especially true for the password for
your email account. If you've used the same password across different accounts, cyber
criminals only need one password to access all your accounts.
Always use a strong and separate password for your email; that is, a password that you
don’t use for any of your other accounts, either at home or at work.
If a criminal can access your email account, they could:
access private information about you (including your banking details)
post emails and messages pretending to be from you (and use this to trick other people)
reset all your other account passwords (and get access to all your other online
accounts)
Having a strong and separate password for your email means that if cyber criminals steal
the password for one of your less-important accounts, they can’t use it to access your
email account.
Check Out The Video About Securing Your Email Account!
This is an image of two people staying secure online with one
person on a ladder, putting up a big padlock
and another sat down on their computer.
The NCSC encourages people to use password managers, which can create strong passwords
for you (and remember them).
If you have re-used your email password across other accounts, change your email
password as soon as possible. It should be strong and different to all your other
accounts.
Ideally, you should use unique passwords for all your important online accounts (such as
banking accounts, shopping/payment accounts and social media accounts), not just your
email account. You should also provide additional protection by setting up 2-step
verification (2SV) on your email account, which will prevent a criminal from accessing
your email account even if they know your password.
Install the latest software and app updates
Applying security updates promptly will help protect your devices and accounts from cyber
criminals.
You should apply updates to your apps and your device's software as soon as they are
available. Updates include protection from viruses and other kinds of malware, and will
often include improvements and new features.
If you receive a prompt to update your device (or apps), don’t ignore it. Applying these
updates is one of the most important (and quickest) things you can do to keep yourself
safe online.
You should also turn on 'automatic updates' in your device's settings, if available.
This will mean you do not have to remember to apply updates.
Turn on 2-step verification (2SV)
Turning on 2SV is one of the most effective ways to protect your online accounts from
cyber criminals.
You should protect your most important accounts (such as email, banking, social media
and online shopping) by making sure you have 2-step verification turned on for each of
them.
2-step verification (2SV), which is also known as two-factor authentication (2FA) or
multi-factor authentication (MFA), helps to keep cyber criminals out of your accounts,
even if they know your passwords. The NCSC recommend you take time to set up 2-step
verification on all your important accounts, even for ones that you've protected with
strong passwords.
Password managers: using browsers and apps to safely store your passwords
In addition, many password managers are helpful because they can:
Synchronise your passwords across your different devices, making it
easier to log
on, wherever you are, and whatever you’re using
Help spot fake websites, which will protect you from phishing
attacks.
Let you know if you’re re-using the same password across
different accounts.
Notify you if your password appears within a known data breach
so you know if you
need to change it
Work across platforms, so you could (for example) use a single password
manager that
would work for your iPhone and your Windows desktop
We're often told that the passwords for our online accounts should be really strong, and
to not use the same password anywhere else. Especially for those important accounts like
email, banking, shopping and social media.
The trouble is, most of us have lots of online accounts, so creating different passwords
for all of them (and remembering them) is hard.
This is where a password manager can help. A password manager (or a web browser) can
store all your passwords securely, so you don’t have to worry about remembering them.
This allows you to use unique, strong passwords for all your important accounts (rather
than using the same password for all of them, which you should never do).
