Protecting Your Passwords

After many security and data breaches for major department stores, I think that most of us should get the message.

Have strong passwords and protect them. Well that's easy to say but what is the reality. If you have 50 sites such as bank, investing and shopping sites that you use different passwords for, you do use different passwords for each site don't you? If these are strong passwords they should be at least 14 characters long and contain upper and lower case letters, numbers and some symbols. To keep track of them all you should use a good password manager.
Password mangers will keep track of all your passwords, they will recommend strong passwords, store them in the cloud so you can use them across different devices, and most of all highly encrypt your passwords so that only you have the encryption key. These are the basics of password managers, from here the different software companies will add on things like credit card management, personal information storage and many other add-ons.

The most important thing is to use a very strong "Master Password". These will never be sent or synchronized with the manager.
This one password is what controls the encryption of all your passwords and you are the only one that has it, so don't lose it. Even if you wanted to do all the right things some sites will not let you. Some are still forcing you to use an eight character password, nothing longer.

Some do not accept symbols and some may limit the password length.
If you are not happy with a site's password policy, don't shop there.

Find another store selling the same stuff.

Remember you have control of you passwords. Now let's talk about what is a strong password: They should be at least 14 characters long Upper and lower case letters, numbers and a few symbols Do not use any dictionary words either forward or backward You should never use the same password more than one time Using a password manager will prevent you from writing down passwords Use a very strong master password When there is a data breach there is not much that you can control except you passwords.

You will have to decide if and when you should change them. Remember it is much easier to change a password then to deal with a stolen one where the bad guys can get into your back accounts or your credit card account.