A hacker may attempt to access your account more than once over a period of time. Changing your password often reduces the risk that they will have frequent access.
Hackers steal your passwords through a variety of methods including data breaches, password cracking, guessing, physical theft and malware.
Cybersecurity experts recommend changing your password every three months. There may even be situations where you should change your password immediately, especially if a cybercriminal has access to your account.
Unless there is reason to believe a password has been compromised or shared, requiring regular password changes may actually do more harm than good in some cases.
Experts recommend using longer passwords when possible. The longer a password is, the more possible permutations it has, making it harder and harder for cybercriminals to crack. But length isn't the only thing that matters when creating a strong password 一 complexity is another key component.
And when forced to change one, the chances are that the new password will be similar to the old one. Attackers can exploit this weakness. The new password may have been used elsewhere, and attackers can exploit this too. The new password is also more likely to be written down, which represents another vulnerability.
As such, strong passwords consist of a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special symbols, such as punctuation. They should be at least 12 characters long, although we'd recommend going for one that's even longer.
If you can still access your email account, change your passwords immediately to block the hacker. If you're locked out, you'll need to work with your email provider to recover your hacked account. Here's how to recover a hacked Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft account.
Once hackers have gained access to your email, they often change the password to prevent you from logging in. However, hackers don't always change your password, and sometimes you will still be able to access your email account.
The basic tenets of password security
Instead, a random pattern of uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters is recommended. The number of characters is also important.
Numeric patterns are worldwide favorites when it comes to creating a weak, easy-to-guess password. Increasing (e.g. 123456) or repetitive (e.g. 111111) numeric patterns could be observed in 8 out of the top 10 and 13 out of the top 30 most used passwords.
Malware on your computer
With the help of a kind of spyware known as a keylogger program, you are tracked while typing on the infected device. By recording your keystrokes, the hacker can steal your passwords and other sensitive data and use it to access your accounts, including email, social media and online banking.
Cybercriminals rarely choose their victims at random. The first stage of the cyber kill chain is reconnaissance, where an attacker narrows down a list of targets based on organization profile, security posture, and vulnerable individuals.
Consider Creating a New Email Address
Many experts do warn against deleting email accounts as most email providers will recycle your old email address. This could mean a hacker could spam every site they can find with 'forgot my password' request and try to impersonate you – identity theft!
The bottom line is it's better to use a strong, unique password for each account and never change them, rather than weak passwords that are frequently changed. That's why it's a good idea to use a password manager, which stores all your complex passwords securely.
Worse, a Gmail account gives access to your entire Google Account. This means that if someone hacks your Gmail, they also have access to everything linked to your Google Account. Here are some of the things hackers can do with your Gmail account: Send phishing or scam emails to your contacts.
Having a long mix of upper and lower case letters, symbols and numbers is the best way make your password more secure. A 12-character password containing at least one upper case letter, one symbol and one number would take 34,000 years for a computer to crack.
Use multiple character types.
There's a reason more and more organizations are requiring passwords made with both uppercase and lowercase letters as well as symbols and numbers. When you include all character types, you maximize the amount of possibilities per character, which makes your password harder to crack.
Sometimes you might never be aware that your password for an account was compromised. But by changing your password every few months, you limit the amount of time a hacker can spend in your account and hopefully minimize the damage a cybercriminal could cause.
The Dangers of Weak Passwords
Weak passwords allow cybercriminals to access systems and accounts easily. People use weak passwords because there are so many to remember, which also prompts people to use the same weak passwords on multiple accounts and use them at work and home.
Prevent Constant Access
It can be difficult to figure out if someone else is using your account, so by changing your password consistently, you reduce the risk that other people will have frequent access to your accounts. Consider changing your password every few months to be on the safe side.
Getting hacked. Hackers and crackers are extremely paranoid about their online activities; it would be the ultimate embarrassment to get hacked themselves.