Let’s face it, passwords are stressful. There is a password for everything. A recent survey conducted by Centrify, revealed that the average person has 19 passwords.
Astonishingly, 25% of those surveyed say they forget a password every day. Every day! On top of that 33% of people admit to feeling something akin to RAGE when forgetting a password.
Red e App is a tech company that is changing the way we communicate with non-desk workers. However, in some ways we are a bit old fashioned:
- If someone calls Red e App for help, there is a good chance someone will answer the phone.
- If someone leaves us a message, they get a call back in a timely manner.
- When someone calls, they will talk to a real person.
Most of the phone calls we receive are from folks that have forgotten their password.
Passwords, or people’s lack of a password strategy is responsible for thousands of jobs, including mine.
Tech does have a problem with security, and luckily there are very smart people working on it, but you should have a plan for managing passwords in the meantime.
Let’s take a look at some password best practices:
1. Use an app to stay organized
Five or six years ago I took the plunge and got an app to manage my passwords. There weren’t a lot of options for Mac users back then and I settled on 1Password. I can honestly say since that fateful day I have not spent any time thinking or trying to figure out passwords.
When I want to log in I tell the 1Password app to log me in. You can save yourself a ton of time and worry by using one of these apps. Pick up your favorite device and search “password” in the preferred app store and research some options.
2. Use sentences you can remember for passwords
Most people I talk to in tech tell me that the length of the password is what keeps you safe. That’s why many of us in the industry use sentences as passwords. The trick is to replace vowels with numbers.
Let’s use a simple sentence such as: I like dogs. aka 1 L1k3 d0gs! Counting spaces that is a 11 digit password with capitals, numbers and special characters.
3. Don’t reuse passwords on important accounts
This is the big debate. I’ve heard the arguments from both sides and fall somewhere in the middle. It goes like this.
“I use the same password all the time, I can’t remember all those passwords.”
“If you use the same password a hacker only needs to get into one account to do real damage to to you.”
I do not use the same password for my email account or any account that has a credit card on file. My nightmare is someone attacking me, getting into my email account, seeing an email from my bank and boom. If I sign up for a blog or newsletter, I use one of two everyday passwords.
When we leave our car in a parking garage most of us would not dream of leaving it unlocked. It may be even more important to lock our digital doors and have a plan for managing passwords. It will be a while before we stop using passwords all together.
If you get locked out of your Red e App account, give us a call (855) 733-3277.
