- No one else knows it;
- It is unique and unrepeatable;
- You will not forget this password;
- It consists of at least eight characters containing letters, symbols and numbers;
- It is updated every three months;
- It is not used to access your other accounts;
- It is not written down in your notebook, contained in your phone and so on.
- Personal information and data that can be easily guessed or found out – for example, name, surname, your child's name, your pet's name, date of birth, address, favourite actor, favourite singer, hobby, etc.;
- Many repeated or consecutive symbols ("0000", "aaaaaaa", "abcde");
- Symbols following each other on the keyboard ("qwerty", "123456").
- The safest place to store passwords is in your memory. However, today, when a person has to remember so many passwords, people have developed individual password creation and storage habits. It should be noted that what one considers as really secure will be considered insecure by another person, and vice versa. Nevertheless, it is necessary to keep in mind the smart advice that our safety depends only on us.
- If you cannot remember passwords and it is easier to write down and store all passwords in one place, then choose a safe place in your home where they will be stored. Most likely, the place where other important documents are stored will be appropriate. You should not carry this information with you.
- To store your passwords, you can also use special programs – password managers like KeePass, LastPass, Password Safe, and others. The program creates a database that contains the user's passwords stored in encrypted form. The user has to remember only one master password, which will protect all the rest. It allows the user to change passwords frequently and to create more sophisticated passwords which are harder to guess and harder to hack as they no longer need to be remembered. However, keep in mind that if someone guesses or hacks this master password of the program, absolutely all of your other passwords will be available to him.
- Write them down in notebooks or on papers which are kept in a wallet or purse and carried along with you in your everyday life;
- Put stickers with passwords and PIN codes on online banking code cards or credit cards. Never carry a paper with a password written down in your wallet or purse.
- Do not put a sticker with passwords on your computer display; better place it right there on the desk or in the desk drawer.
- Do not press "Remember the password" options that are offered by browsers and other software when a user logs in to a website. This is particularly advisable if it is not your personal computer and it is used by other family members or work colleagues, or even if it is provided for public use in libraries, schools, etc.
- First, change the password.
- Check the ‘Inbox', ‘Sent' and ‘Trash' folders for any activities carried out on the account.
- If you have a suspicion or your suspicion is confirmed, you can contact the administrator of your email server/social network, asking for information on all activities carried out in your email/social network account as well as on the IP address from which your email/social network account was accessed, which may later help to identify the perpetrator.
- If the information provided by the administrator of your email server/social network confirms the fact of intrusion into your email/social network account, then, depending on the degree of violation, if a person has suffered material loss, a claim must be filed to the court in order to identify the person with the specified IP address and to hold him or her to account for the infringements performed.
- To access your bank account and steal money;
- Using your contacts available in your email - a scamster can send, on your behalf, a fraudulent email for the purpose of defrauding money by specifying a bank account to which the money is to be transferred;
- To access your photos and other important information in order to ask you to pay money to prevent them spreading your private information on the internet;
- To inflict personal harm – for example, out of revenge or desire to make you suffer.