Are Your Passwords Hacker Proof?

I’ve seen a huge surge again with online friends and friends of friends who have gotten their social media pages hacked.

You may gave seen frantic posts in your newsfeed with S.O.S. messages asking for any help, referrals and tips on how to get their accounts back.

Some even experienced the hackers taking control over their Ads Manager Accounts and spending tens of thousands on bitcoin related scams.

I just shared the infographic below inside my Lights Camera Branding alumni coaching group, Insider’s Club as a reminder to update your passwords ASAP and after seeing even more new cases of password hacking, I had to share it here for my blog readers too.

SOURCE: HIVE SYSTEMS

🚨 I first have to remind you that I’m in no way, in no form, an internet security expert.

That’s also one of the reasons why I was initially hesitant to share this outside my paid coaching program but I realized I have to share what I know as your FELLOW content creator and business owner.

The intention for this blog is to be used as a jumping off point to do your own due diligence and additional research. It is not an end point.

If I can help prevent this massive headache and in some cases, a total nightmare where all your years of blood, sweat and tears of creating content to serve your audience and grow your business are wiped out! That’s exactly what happened to two friends I personally know!

Think about everything we use on a daily basis to create content and run our businesses:

• social media platforms,
• website/blog,
• landing pages,
• email service provider,
• domain name accounts,
• digital course/membership program platform,
• graphic design, templates,
• video editing,
• shopping sites
• online banking services,
• and so much more

We need to pay attention NOW and do all that we can that is within our control to fortify our passwords even though there’s nothing that’s absolutely 100% hacker-proof.

Still, we must do our part to not be sitting ducks relying on luck and chance.

💡Here Are My Top 7 Best Practices for Password Protection

1. Don’t use REAL words!
2. DO use a combination of complete JIBBERISH as in letters, numbers and symbols in various combinations including CASE SENSITIVE mix of upper and lower case.
3. Don’t use personal information or important dates like the number of children or pets, wedding anniversary as a part of your password. All of this is public information we often share freely online.
4. DO use a lot more characters than you think. The infographic above perfectly illustrates why!
5. Don’t stop with just the password. Utilize 2-Factor Authentication whenever, wherever possible. At the end of 2022 and going into 2023, I’d personal think twice before using any business software or website that doesn’t offer it.
6. Don’t share passwords with your team members! Use a password vault program like LastPass and/or utilize creating a team member/admin role log in if the platform provides this feature. We do this for our WordPress website management, email service provider and our online course/membership platform Kajabi 
   

And one of the most important tips to remember that has become a bigger problem than ever before…

SOURCE: HIVE SYSTEMS

7. Don’t use the same password on multiple platforms and definitely don’t continue using one that has been previously identified as part of a security breach!

Websites as well as some browsers like Chrome, will notify you if you’re using a a compromised password.  You can also check HERE and use Google Password Checkup.

Remember that there’s no way to be 100% perfectly protected BUT… as you now know, there’s many things we can implement to empower ourselves to the very best of our ability.

Do you have additional tips that I missed? Please share with us in the comments below.

Found this helpful? Pass it on with all your fellow business owner friends too!

With Grit & Grace, xo!

Tiffany aka Coach Glitter