The Worst Password Habits — and What to Do Instead

You have a password protecting your bank account, or at least you think that it’s protecting your bank account. Unfortunately, not all passwords are sufficiently keeping data safe — it doesn’t matter how good the lock is if the key is a weak point. So, what are the worst password habits, and how can you improve them? Let’s take a look.

7 Worst Password Habits to Avoid

Stay away from these password fails to make your online activities more secure.

1. Using the Same Password Everywhere

We get it; it’s easy to use the same password with multiple websites. Remembering numerous passwords is difficult, so using the same login information for your bank and Netflix might seem like a good fix. However, using the same password with more than one account increases the risk of your entire digital life being compromised if a hacker or other nefarious actor compromises that one password.

What’s the solution? Using unique passwords for every single one of your logins is the first step to tackling bad password habits. That can sound like a herculean task, but don’t sweat! This is precisely why we recommend using a password manager to keep your digital world under tight lock and key while also making logging into every service super quick.

2. Not Utilizing a Password Manager (Hint: Theme Incoming)

We’ll repeat it for the people in the back—use a password manager! Keeping up with a never-ending, complex list of passwords is intensely stressful and will likely lead to poor practices (we’ll keep exploring some of those). So, do yourself a favor and download a password manager; we rounded up our recommendations for the best password managers.

Password managers allow you to generate more secure passwords and store them in an encrypted ‘vault’ unlocked by a single password (no more remembering endless passwords). In addition, most auto-fill your login information, so you can sign in to any website or app with the click of a button, tap of a…